THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


From  the  Library  of 
GERTRUDE  WEIL 

1879-1971 


'^/x 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00022245269 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/childsbookofnatu02hook 


THE  CHILD'S  BOOK  OF  NATURE 

FOR    THE    USE    OF 

FAMILIES    AND    SCHOOLS 

INTENDED 

TO  AID  MOTHERS  AND  TEACHERS  IN  TRAINING  CHILDREN 
IN  THE  OBSERVATION  OF  NATURE 


By  WORTHfflGTOH  HOOKER,  M.D. 

AUTHOR    OF    "FIRST    BOOK    IN    CHEMISTRY "     "CHEMISTRY"     "NATURAL    PHILOSOPHY  ; 
"NATURAL  HISTORY"   ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 


In    Three    Parts.      Part    II. — Animals 


REVISED  EDITION 


NEW  YORK 
HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN  SQUARE 

1890. 


By  Dr.  WORTHINGTON  HOOKER. 


THE  CHILD'S  BOOK  OF  NATURE.  For  the  Use  of  Families  and  Schools  ;  intended  to 
aid  Mothers  and  Teachers  in  training  Children  in  the  Observation  of  Nature.  Revised  Edition. 
In  Three  Parts.  Illustrations.  The  Three  Tarts  complete  in  one  vol.,  Small  4to,  Cloth,  $1  00  ; 
Separately,  Cloth,  44  cents  each. 

PART  I.  PLANTS.— Tart  II.  ANIMALS.— Part  III.  AIR,  WATER,  HEAT,  LIGHT,  &c. 

FIRST  BOOK  IN  CHEMISTRY.  For  the  Use  of  Schools  and  Families.  Revised  Edition. 
Illustrations.     Square  4to,  Cloth,  44  cents. 

NATURAL  HISTORY.  For  the  Use  of  Schools  and  Families.  Illustrated  by  nearly  300 
Engravings.     12mo,  Cloth,  'JO  cents. 

SCIENCE  FOR  THE  SCHOOL  AND  FAMILY. 

Part  I.  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY.     Illustrated  by  nearly  300  Engravings.     12mo,  Cloth, 
90  cents. 

Part  II.  CHEMISTRY.     Revised  Edition.     Illustrations.     12mo,  Cloth,  90  cents. 
Part  III.  MINERALOGY  AND  GEOLOGY     Illustrations.     12mo,  Cloth,  90  cents. 


Published  hj  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  FrankUn  Square,  N.T. 

JK3=-  Any  of  the  above  volumes  will  be  sent  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States 
or  Canada,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  seven, 
by  Harper  &  Brothers,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  Court 
of  New  York.  

Copyright,  1885,  by  Henrietta  E.  Hookeu. 
Copyright,  1886,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


PREFACE. 


Having  presented  in  Part  First  such  facts  or  phenomena  of 
Vegetable  Physiology  as  would  be  interesting  to  a  child,  I  pro- 
ceed in  this  Part  to  do  the  same  with  Animal  Physiology. 

The  teacher  and  parent  will  observe,  that  in  doing  this  I  bring 
out  quite  prominently  the  analogies  that  exist  between  the  ani- 
mal and  the  vegetable  world  in  the  operations  of  life.  Such  anal- 
ogies are  always  interesting  to  the  child  as  well  as  to  the  adult, 
and  the  consideration  of  them  adds  much  to  the  enjoyment  of 
the  observer  of  nature,  for  it  opens  to  him  the  simple  plans  and 
principles  upon  which  the  Creator  works  out  the  almost  endlessly 
varied  results  that  life,  both  animal  and  vegetable,  presents  to 
our  view. 

What  is  true  of  the  analogies  that  exist  between  the  two  king- 
doms of  life  is  also  true  of  those  that  we  find  in  each  kingdom 
by  itself.  I  have  therefore,  in  this  Part,  traced  the  resemblances 
which  the  contrivances  in  the  human  system  bear  to  those  which 
we  see  in  animals  of  different  kinds,  and  also  the  differences,  giv- 
ing to  some  extent  the  reasons  for  them — that  is,  I  have  made 
it  in  some  measure  a  book  of  comparative  physiology.     The  ef- 


IV  PREFACE. 

feet  of  this  mode  of  treating  the  subject  will  be  to  interest  the 
child's  mind  in  the  observation  of  the  various  animals,  great  and 
small,  that  he  sees  from  day  to  day.  Natural  History,  which  is 
otherwise  rather  a  dull  studjT,  will  thus  become  very  attractive 
to  him.  And,  to  further  this  object,  which  I  deem  to  be  of  great 
importance,  I  have  noticed  the  habits  of  some  animals  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  connect  distinctly  Physiology  with  Natural  His- 
tory, a  relation  which,  though  an  obvious  one,  has  very  generally 
been  disregarded. 

While  I  have  aimed  in  this  Part  at  the  same  kind  of  simplic- 
ity as  in  the  First,  there  are  some  points  in  it  which  require  a 
greater  compass  of  mind  to  understand.  This  is  as  it  should  be; 
for  in  going  through  the  First  Part  there  will,  of  course,  be  ac- 
quired by  the  learner  some  amount  of  skill  in  observation  and 
reasoning.  I  have  taken  special  care,  however,  not  to  presume 
too  much  upon  the  mental  advance  thus  made. 

Worth  ington  Hookee. 


C  0  N  T  E  N  T  S. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  WHAT   IS    MADE   FROM   THE    BLOOD 7 

II.  HOW    THE    BLOOD   IS    MADE 12 

III.  MOTHER   EARTH 14 

IV.  THE    STOMACH    AND    THE    TEETH 18 

V.  MORE    ABOUT   THE   TEETH 21 

VI.  THE    CIRCULATION    OP   THE    BLOOD 25 

VII.  BREATHING 29 

VIII.  BRAIN   AND   NERVES 34 

IX.  HOW   THE   MIND    GETS    KNOWLEDGE 40 

X.  SEEING 47 

XI.  HOW   THE    EYE    IS    GUARDED 54 

XII.  HEARING 59 

XIII.  THE    SMELL,  THE   TASTE,  AND    THE    TOUCH 65 

XIV.  THE    BONES 71 

XV.  MORE  ABOUT  THE  BONES 75 

XVI.  THE  MUSCLES 80. 

XVII.  MORE    ABOUT   THE    MUSCLES 85 

XVIII.  THE   BRAIN   AND   NERVES    IN   ANIMALS 91 

XIX.  THE   VARIETY    OF    MACHINERY   IN   ANIMALS 95 

XX.  THE    HAND 100 

XXI.  WHAT   ANIMALS    USE    FOR   HANDS 106 

XXII.  THE    TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS 114 

XXIII.  MORE    ABOUT    THE    TOOLS    OF    ANIMALS 120 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHATTER  PACK 

XXIV.  INSTRUMENTS    OF    DEFENCE    AND  ATTACK 127 

XXV.  WINGS 139 

XXVI.  COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS 147 

XXVII.  BEAUTY    OF    THE    COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS 153 

XXVIII.  HOW   MAN    IS    SUPERIOR   TO    ANIMALS ICO 

XXIX.  THE    THINKING    OF  ANIMALS 1 G6 

XXX.  MORE    ABOUT    THE    THINKING    OF    ANIMALS 174 

XXXI.  WHAT    SLEEP    IS    FOR 1 79 

XXXII.  HYGIENE 187 

XXXIII.  WHAT   TO    DO    IN   AN    EMERGENCY 190 


THE 

CHILD'S  BOOK  OF  NATURE. 


PART   1 1. -ANIMALS. 
CHAPTER  I. 

WHAT    IS    MADE    FKOM    THE    BLOOD. 


The  blood  the  building-material  of  the  body. 


I  HAVE  told  yon,  in  Part  First,  how  everything  in  a  plant 
or  tree  is  made  from  the  sap.  This  is,  then,  the  building- 
material,  as  we  may  say,  of  the  plant.  Now,  everything  in  your 
body  is  made  from  the  blood.  The  blood,  then,  is  to  your  body 
what  sap  is  to  a  plant.  It  is  the  common  building-material  of 
the  body. 

You  remember  what  I  told  you  in  Part  First  about  the  full- 
blown rose.  This  is  made  from  the  sap  that  comes  to  the  bud 
through  the  pipes  in  the  stem.  Just  so  the  little  finger  of  the 
child  becomes  the  large  finger  of  the  man,  from  the  blood  that 
comes  to  it  through  the  pipes  in  the  arm.  And  as  the  stem  of 
the  plant  grows  larger  all  the  time,  so  does  the  arm  of  a  child. 
The  sap  makes  the  stem  grow,  and  the  blood  makes  the  arm 
grow. 

If  you  cut  off  a  branch  of  a  plant  it  stops  growing,  because 
the  sap  does  not  come  to  it  any  longer.     It  soon  dies  and  decays. 


WHAT    IS    MADE    FROM    THE    BLOOD. 


The  twig  and  the  infant.  Variety  of  the  things  made  frcm  ihe  hlood. 

So,  if  the  arm  of  a  child  be  cut  off,  it  cannot  grow,  because  no 
more  blood  can  come  to  it.  Like  the  cut-off  branch,  it  dies  and 
decays. 

You  see  a  twig  come  up  out  of  the  ground.  It  grows  larger 
and  larger  every  year.  Soon  it  is  a  small  tree.  After  many 
years  it  becomes  very  large,  and  spreads  out  its  long  branches 
over  a  great  space.  As  you  look  up  into  it,  you  think  of  all  that 
you  see,  its  branches  and  leaves,  as  having  been  made  from  the 
sap  that  is  continually  running  in  its  pipes.  Now,  as  the  little 
twig  becomes  a  tree,  so  the  infant  in  the  cradle  becomes  the  large 
man.  And  when  you  look  up  at  a  man,  you  can  think  of  all 
his  body  as  having  been  made  from  the  blood  that  runs  every- 
where in  its  pipes,  just  as  you  think  of  a  tree  as  made  from  the 
sap. 

How  different  from  each  other  are  some  of  the  things  that  are 
made  from  the  blood  !  You  could  hardly  believe  that  the  white, 
hard  teeth  are  made  from  the  same  blood  that  the  red,  soft  gums 
are.  Suppose  that  while  you  are  in  a  china-ware  factory  a  man 
should  tell  you  that  even  the  whitest  china  is  made  from  a  red 
liquid,  and  that  they  also  make  in  this  factory  fine  red  cloth  from 
this  liquid.  You  would  not  believe  him.  But  white  china-ware 
and  the  fine  red  cloth  are  not  any  more  unlike  than  the  teetli 
and  the  gums. 

Suppose,  now,  that  he  should  show  you  a  yellow,  bitter  fluid, 
and  then  a  clear,  soft  eye-water,  and  tell  you  that  these  he  makes 
from  the  same  red  liquid  from  which  the  china  and  the  red  cloth 
are  made.     This,  certainly,  you  would  not  believe.    And  yet,  in 


WHAT   IS   MADE   FROM   THE   BLOOD. 


The  china-ware  factory.  The  body  the  house  of  the  soul. 

our  bodies,  the  bile  and  the  tears  are  made  from  the  same  blood 
with  the  teeth  and  the  gums. 

But  not  only  are  a  few  things,  very  much  unlike,  made  from 
the  blood,  but  many  things  that  differ  from  each  other,  some  of 
them  much  and  some  but  little.  Suppose  that  the  china-ware 
maker  should  tell  you  that  besides  making  white  china  and  red 
cloth  from  his  red  liquid,  he  made  also  a  variety  of  both  hard 
and  soft  things,  such  as  velvet,  and  various  kinds  of  cloth,  nails, 
glass,  etc.  Impossible !  you  would  say.  But  this  is  no  more 
wonderful  titan  that  hair,  teeth,  gums,  nails,  bones,  and  all  the 
different  parts  of  the  body  should  be  made  from  that  red  flnid — 
the  blood. 

But  suppose,  again,  that  the  china-ware  man  should  tell  you 
that  his  factory  was  made  from  the  same  red  fluid  from  which 
he  manufactures  so  many  things  in  it — that  the  very  pipes  that 
carry  the  fluid  around  the  building  were  made  from  it,  and  so 
also  was  the  pump  that  sends  it  through  these  pipes.  This 
would  seem  to  you  strangest  of  all.  And  yet  all  the  various 
machinery  of  the  body  is  made  from  the  blood.  The  liver,  that 
manufactures  bile  from  blood,  is  itself  made  from  blood  ;  and  so 
of  other  things;  even  the  pipes  in  which  the  blood  runs  all  over 
your  body,  and  the  heart  that  pumps  it  into  them,  are  made,  as 
I  have  before  told  you,  from  the  blood. 

The  body  is  the  house  or  habitation  of  the  soul.  It  is  a  well- 
built  and  a  well-finished  house.  The  bones  are  its  timbers.  The 
skin  is  its  covering.  The  hair  is  its  thatched  roof.  The  eyes 
are  its  windows.     It  is  a  house  that  can  be  easily  moved  about, 


10  WHAT   IS    MADE    FKOM   THE    BLOOD. 

All  the  parts  and  the  furniture  of  the  soul's  house  made  from  blood. 

just  as  the  soul  wishes.  There  is  for  this  a  great  deal  of  ma- 
chinery in  it.  And  the  soul  has  little  cords,  called  nerves,  run- 
ning to  all  parts  of  this  machinery,  like  telegraphic  wires.  There 
are  also  other  kinds  of  machinery,  as  the  breathing  machinery, 
the  machinery  for  taking  care  of  the  food,  and  the  machinery  for 
circulating  the  blood.  The  soul  resides  in  the  top  of  this  house, 
the  brain.  Here  it  sends  out  messages  everywhere  by  the  little 
cords,  and  receives  messages  by  them.  Here  it  thinks  and  acts, 
and  some  of  the  time  sleeps.  This  part  of  the  house  is  very 
curiously  and  beautifully  fitted  up. 

Now  all  the  various  parts  of  this  house  are  made,  as  I  have 
told  3*011,  from  the  blood,  and  yet  there  is  more  variety  in  them 
than  there  is  in  the  parts  and  furniture  of  the  houses  that  man 
builds.  Suppose  that  a  man  should  show  you  a  great  quantity 
of  a  red  liquid,  and  tell  you  that  with  that  he  intended  to  build 
a  house  and  furnish  it — that  he  should  make  from  it  all  the  stones, 
and  bricks,  and  timbers,  and  glass,  and  nails,  and  plaster,  and 
paper  for  his  walls,  and  paints  of  different  colors,  and  then  his 
carpets,  and  mirrors,  and  chairs,  and  curtains,  etc.,  etc.  You 
would  say  that  the  man  is  crazy.  But  God  makes  from  that 
red  fluid,  the  blood,  all  the  parts  of  the  house  of  the  soul. 

Exactly  in  what  way  all  the  different  parts  of  the  body  are 
made  from  the  blood  we  do  not  know.  Wise  men  have  studied 
this  a  great  deal,  and  they  have  found  out  some  things  about  it. 
What  they  have  found  out  you  are  not  yet  old  enough  to  under- 
stand. After  all,  the  wisest  men  know  but  little  about  it,  and, 
with  all  their  wisdom,  they  do  not  know  enough  to  make  skin, 


WHAT  IS    MADE   FROM   THE    BLOOD.  11 

Questions. 

or  hair,  or  anything  else  that  you  see  in  your  body,  from  the 
blood  any  more  than,  as  I  told  you  in  Part  First,  they  can  make 
even  a  simple  leaf  from  the  sap. 

Questions. — What  is  everything  in  a  plant  made  from  ?  What  is  everything  in 
your  body  made  from?  Tell  what  is  said  about  the, bud  and  the  ringer,  and  about 
the  stem  and  the  arm.  What  is  said  about  cutting  off  a  branch  and  an  arm?  How 
is  a  child  compared  to  a  twig?  What  is  said  about  the  teeth  and  the  gums?  Give 
the  comparison  about  china  and  cloth.  What  is  said  about  the  tears  and  the  bile? 
What  is  said  about  the  variety  of  things  made  from  the  blood  ?  Give  the  comparison 
about  the  china-ware  factory  and  the  machinery  of  the  body.  What  is  said  about 
the  different  parts  of  the  habitation  of  the  soul  ?  In  what  part  of  this  house  does  the 
soul  reside?  Give  the  comparison  about  a  house  and  its  furniture.  What  is  said 
about  wise  men  ? 


12  nOW   THE    BLOOD    IS   MADE. 

Blood  made  from  food.  The  mouths  in  the  stomach. 


CHAPTER    II. 

HOW   THE   BLOOD   IS   MADE. 

I  have  told  you  what  is  made  from  the  blood,  and  now  you 
will  want  to  know  how  the  blood  itself  is  made. 

The  blood  in  your  body  is  made  from  the  food  that  you  eat. 
It  is  made  very  much  in  the  same  way  that  the  sap  in  the  plant 
is  made.  This  sounds  strange  to  you,  but  it  is  true.  You  re- 
member that  I  told  you  in  Part  First  that  the  plant's  food  is  in 
the  ground,  and  that  the  root  is  its  stomach.  You  remember 
what  I  told  you  about  the  little  mouths  in  the  root  that  suck  up 
'the  plant's  food  out  of  the  ground.  There  are  little  mouths  in 
your  stomach  that  suck  in  the  nourishing  part  of  the  food  that 
you  eat,  as  the  mouths  in  the  root  suck  up  the  nourishing  part 
of  the  earth.  And  the  stomachs  of  all  animals  have  these  little 
mouths. 

The  mouths  in  the  root  of  a  plant  do  not,  you  know,  suck  up 
all  the  soil.  They  drink  in  only  what  is  good  to  make  the  plant 
grow.  So  the  mouths  in  the  stomach  of  an  animal  do  not  suck 
up  all  the  food ;  they  suck  up  only  that  part  of  the  food  that 
will  make  the  animal  grow — that  is,  what  will  make  good  blood. 
There  is,  you  know,  no  sap  in  the  ground,  but  there  is  what  can 
be  made  into  sap.  So  there  is  no  blood  in  your  food,  but  there 
is  in  it  what  can  be  made  into  blood.  It  is  the  business  of  the 
mouths  in  the  root  to  take  in  what  will  make  sap,  and  so  it  is  the 
business  of  the  mouths  in  the  stomach  to  take  in  what  will  make 


HOW   THE   BLOOD    IS    MADE. 


13 


Variety  of  our  food.  Stomachs  of  animals  suited  to  their  food. 

blood.  And  they  generally  do  this  business  very  faithfully.  It 
is  very  seldom  that  they  take  in  what  they  ought  not  to. 

You  have  seen  how  many  different  things  are  made  from  the 
blood.  This  is  very  wonderful.  But  it  is  quite  as  wonderful 
that  the  blood  can  be  made  from  so  many  different  kinds  of  food 
as  you  sometimes  take  into  your  stomach.  Just  think  of  all  the 
various  things  that  you  sometimes  eat  at  dinner — meat,  potato, 
turnip,  squash,  apple-sauce,  cranberry,  celery,  pie,  filberts,  raisins, 
etc.  It  seems  strange  that  red  blood  can  be  made  from  such  a 
mixture  as  this.  But  so  it  is.  There  is  something  in  all  these 
different  things  that  helps  to  make  the  blood. 

The  blood  is  made  from  different  things  in  different  animals. 
The  cow,  you  know,  never  eats  meat.  It  would  be  of  no  use  in 
its  stomach.  The  mouths  there  would  not  suck  up  anything 
from  it.  This  is  not  their  business.  Their  business  is  to  suck 
up  something  from  grass,  and  meal,  and  potatoes,  etc.,  but  not 
from  meat.  So  grass  would  be  of  no  use  to  a  dog.  The  Creator 
has  made  the  stomach  of  the  cow  in  such  a  way  that  it  can  get 
from  grass  what  is  needed  to  make  blood  ;  and  he  has  given  such 
a  stomach  to  a  dog  that  blood  can  be  made  from  the  meat  that 
he  eats.  Our  stomachs  are  made  in  such  a  way  that  our  blood 
can  be  made  from  a  great  many  different  tilings;  and  so  the 
variety  of  our  food  is  much  greater  than  that  of  such  animals  as 
the  cow  and  the  dog. 

Questions. — From  what  is  the  blood  made  ?  How  is  an  animal's  stomach  like  the 
root  of  a  plant?  What  part  of  the  food  do  the  mouths  in  stomachs  and  in  roots 
suck  up?  What  is  said  about  the  different  kinds  of  food  that  blood  is  made  from? 
Tell  about  the  food  of  the  cow  and  the  dog.     What  is  said  about  our  stomachs? 


14  MOTHER    EARTH. 


Our  food  iu  the  ground.  The  plants  gather  it  and  fit  it  for  onr  use. 


CHAPTER   III. 

MOTHER      E  A  R  T  II. 

The  food  of  plants  is  in  the  ground,  and  the  roots  take  it  up; 
but  so,  too,  is  the  food  of  animals  in  the  ground.  And  yet,  if 
we  should  fill  our  stomachs  ever  so  full  of  earth,  we  should  not 
be  nourished.  How  is  this  ?  It  is  because  the  food  is  not  in  the 
right  condition  for  us  while  it  is  in  the  earth.  It  must  be  changed 
before  our  stomachs  can  do  anything  with  it. 

Now  this  is  just  what  the  plants  do  for  us.  They  get  this 
food  out  of  the  earth  for  us,  and  put  it  into  such  a  condition 
that  our  stomachs  can  use  it.  I  will  make  this  plain  to  you.  "We 
eat  bread  made  from  wheat.  It  nourishes  us — that  is,  blood  is 
made  from  it.  But  what  is  the  wheat  ?  It  is  grain  that  is  made 
from  the  sap  that  comes  up  in  the  pipes  of  the  stalk,  and  this  sap 
is  made  from  what  the  root  sucks  up  out  of  the  ground.  You 
see,  then,  that  what  the  wheat  is  made  from  is  in  the  ground; 
and  all  that  the  plant  does  is  to  take  this  up  out  of  the  ground 
and  make  it  into  wheat,  so  that  our  stomachs  can  use  it  for  food. 
The  plant's  stomach,  then,  we  may  sa}T,  gathers  food  out  of  the 
ground  for  our  stomachs. 

One  of  the  things  that  we  eat  is  sugar.  Where  does  it  come 
from  ?  It  is  made  from  the  earth.  But  if  you  should  put  earth 
into  your  stomach,  no  sugar  could  be  made  from  it  in  your  body. 
There  are  some  plants  that  have  to  do  this  for  us.     They  make 


MOTHER    EAETH.  15 


Changes  in  the  food  while  it  is  becomincr  fitted  for  us 


sugar  from  the  earth  for  us  to  eat.  This  part  of  our  food,  then, 
may  be  said  to  be  really  in  the  ground,  for  what  it  is  made  from 
is  there. 

The  same  thing  is  true  when  you  eat  meat.  This  meat  was 
once  a  part  of  the  ground.  See  how  this  is.  Suppose  it  is  a 
piece  of  beef  from  an  ox :  the  grass  that  the  ox  ate  was  made 
from  sap  sucked  up  from  the  ground  ;  then  from  this  grass  blood 
was  made  in  the  ox  ;  from  this  blood  the  meat  was  made ;  and 
now  from  the  meat  blood  is  made  to  nourish  you. 

See,  now,  how  many  changes  the  food  in  the  ground  goes 
through  in  this  case  before  it  becomes  a  part  of  your  body.  First 
it  becomes  sap  ;  then  it  becomes  a  part  of  the  grass  ;  then  in  the 
stomach  of  the  ox  it  is  sucked  up,  and  is  changed  into  blood; 
then  it  becomes  a  part  of  the  ox ;  then  it  is  sucked  up  in  your 
stomach,  and  is  changed  into  blood;  and  now  it  is  ready  to  be 
used  in  your  body  to  make  nerve,  or  bone,  or  eye,  or  tooth,  or 
any  part  of  the  house  of  your  soul. 

You  sometimes  drink  the  milk  of  the  cow.  This  also  comes 
from  the  ground.  See  how  this  is.  The  cow  goes  to  pasture, 
and  eats  the  grass  that  is  made  from  the  ground.  The  cow's 
blood  is  made  from  this,  then  milk  is  made  in  her  bag  from  the 
blood,  and  in  you  this  milk  is  changed  back  to  blood. 

So  you  see  that  all  our  food  really  comes  from  the  earth. 
There  is  in  the  earth  under  our  feet  just  what  makes  and  nour- 
ishes our  bodies.  We  cannot  get  at  it  ourselves,  mixed  up  as  it 
is  with  the  earth,  but  the  plants  suck  it  up  and  prepare  it  for  us; 
and  in  this  you  see  the  reason  for  the  expression  "  Mother  Earth." 


16  MOTHER    EARTH. 


Reasons  why  animals  have  a  stomach. 


The  earth  is  our  mother.  We  get  all  our  food  from  the  earth 
as  really  as  the  infant  gets  its  food  from  its  mother's  breast. 

You  can  also  see,  from  what  I  have  told  you  in  this  chapter, 
the  meaning  of  the  text,  "Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt 
thou  return."  We  are  dust,  that  is,  earth  ;  for  we  are  made 
from  it,  and  are  nourished  by  what  comes  from  it,  and  when  we 
die  our  bodies  will  become  a  part  of  the  earth  again. 

You  see  that  there  are  two  reasons  why  animals  have  a  stom- 
ach to  put  their  food  in.  One  is  that  they  want  to  move  about. 
They  could  not  have  a  root  for  a  stomach,  as  plants  do.  They 
must  have  a  stomach  that  they  can  carry  about  with  them.  We 
can  suppose  an  animal  made  like  a  plant.  It  might  have  feet 
with  roots  sprouted  out  from  them,  and  these  roots  might  have 
little  mouths  which  would  suck  up  food  as  soon  as  they  were  put 
into  the  ground.  But  how  very  awkward  and  inconvenient  this 
would  be !  The  animal  would  be  obliged  every  now  and  then  to 
bury  up  its  feet  with  their  roots  in  loose,  moist  earth,  and  stay 
still  in  one  spot  till  enough  was  sucked  up  from  the  earth  for  its 
nourishment.  And,  besides,  the  roots  would  be  dangling  around, 
and  catching  in  everything  as  the  animal  moved  about.  Your 
little  feet  could  not  carry  you  about  as  nimbly  as  they  now  do 
if  you  had  such  roots  fastened  to  them. 

Another  reason  is,  that  the  food  in  the  ground  is  not  fitted  to 
nourish  an  animal.  It  must  be  gathered  up  in  plants,  and  be 
changed  in  them,  as  I  have  shown  you  in  this  chapter,  before  it 
can  be  of  any  use  to  animals. 

The  stomach  of  a  plant  is  much  larger  than  that  of  an  animal. 


MOTHER    EARTH.  17 


Why  the  stomach  of  a  plant  is  so  much  larger  than  the  stomach  of  an  animal. 

The  stomach  of  an  animal,  you  know,  is  but  a  small  part  of  its 
body;  while  the  root  of  the  plant — that  is,  its  stomach — is  nearly 
as  large  as  the  plant  itself.  What  do  you  think  is  the  reason  of 
this?  The  little  mouths  in  the  root  of  the  plant  suck  np  only  a 
small  part  of  the  earth,  the  plant's  food,  and  so  it  takes  a  great 
deal  of  earth  to  give  the  plant  all  the  sap  that  it  needs.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  the  root  spreads  out  so  far  on  every  side.  Now, 
in  the  animal  the  mouths  in  the  stomach  suck  up  a  great  part  of 
the  food.  It  does  not  require,  therefore,  a  large  stomach,  for  it 
needs  to  put  but  a  small  amount  of  food  into  it.  You  see,  then, 
that  the  food  of  the  plant  is  bulky,  as  we  say,  and  therefore  it 
must  have  a  large  stomach,  while  the  animal  can  manage  its  food 
wTith  a  small  one. 

Questions. — Where  is  the  food  of  animals?  What  must  be  done  to  it  before  they 
can  use  it?  What  do  the  plants  do  for  us?  Tell  about  the  wheat.  What  is  said 
about  sugar?  What  about  meat?  Mention  the  changes  that  food  goes  through  in 
this  case  before  it  becomes  a  part  of  your  body.  What  is  said  of  milk  ?  What  is 
the  reason  of  the  expression  "Mother  Earth"  ?  Explain  the  text,  "  Dust  thou  art, 
and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return."  What  is  the  first  reason  given  why  an  animal 
has  a  stomach  to  put  his  food  in  ?  What  is  the  second  reason  ?  Why  is  the  stomach 
of  a  plant  so  nuch  larger  that  the  stomach  of  an  animal  ? 

11 


18  THE    STOMACTI    AND    THE    TEETTI. 


What  is  done  to  the  food  in  the  stomach.  The  grinding  of  the  food. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TIIE    STOMACH    AND   THE   TEETH. 

The  little  mouths  in  the  stomach,  as  I  have  told  you,  suck  up 
from  the  food  what  is  made  into  blood,  but  they  do  not  do  this 
as  soon  as  the  food  is  put  into  the  stomach.  The  food  must  be 
digested  first.  You  have  heard  people  talk  about  digestion,  and 
now  I  will  explain  it  to  you. 

When  you  swallow  your  food,  there  is  a  liquid  formed  in  the 
stomach  that  mixes  up  with  it.  This  liquid,  after  a  little  time, 
changes  all  the  different  kinds  of  food  in  such  a  way  that  the 
whole  looks  as  if  it  was  all  one  thing.  The  meat,  and  potato, 
and  pie,  etc.,  are  not  only  well  mixed,  but  they  are  so  changed 
that  you  could  not  tell  one  from  the  other. 

When  the  food  becomes  changed  in  this  way,  the  little  mouths 
begin  their  work  upon  it.  They  suck  up  from  it  a  white  fluid 
very  much  like  milk;  and  it  is  from  this  fluid  that  all  the  blood 
in  our  bodies  is  made. 

Now  observe  what  is  done  to  the  food  before  it  goes  into  the 
stomach.  There  is  a  mill  in  your  mouth  for  grinding  it  up,  and 
a  very  good  mill  it  is.  There  are  twenty  teeth  there  for  the  pur- 
pose of  dividing  up  your  food  very  finely.  You  can  see  what 
the  use  of  this  is.  The  finer  the  food  is,  the  more  easily  will  the 
digesting  fluid  in  the  stomach  change  it.  It  takes  some  time  for 
this  fluid  to  soak  through  a  solid  piece  of  meat  or  potato.     So 


TIIE    STOMACH    AND    THE    TEETH.  19 

Breaking  up  the  food  of  plants.  The  saliva  factories. 

you  see  that  you  must  not  swallow  your  food  too  fast,  but  must 
let  the  mill  in  your  mouth  grind  it  up  thoroughly. 

Something  like  this  grinding  we  do  sometimes  for  the  food  of 
plants.  You  know  that  in  the  spring  the  gardener  digs  up  his 
garden,  and  the  farmer  ploughs  his  fields.  What  is  this  for  ?  It 
is  to  loosen  up  the  ground  ;  that  is,  it  is  to  break  up  the  food  of 
the  plants,  so  that  they  can  use  it  well.  If  this  was  not  done, 
the  hard  earth  would  be  to  the  plants  just  as  your  food  would 
be  to  your  stomach  if  you  swallow  it  without  chewing  it  well. 
So  your  teeth  do  to  your  food  what  the  spade  and  the  plough 
do  to  the  food  of  plants. 

While  the  mill  is  grinding  the  food,  there  are  some  factories 
about  the  mouth,  making  and  pouring  forth  a  fluid  to  moisten  it. 
This  fluid,  called  the  saliva,  is  what  you  feel  in  the  mouth  when 
the  mouth  waters,  as  we  say.  The  two  largest  of  these  factories 
are  just  below  your  ears.  It  is  these  that  swell  up  so  much  when 
one  has  the  mumps.  These  saliva  factories  do  a  moderate  busi- 
ness generally.  Most  of  the  time  they  only  make  enough  liquid 
to  keep  the  mouth  moist.  Sometimes  they  do  not  make  enough 
even  for  this.  This  is  the  case  when  your  mouth  gets  dry,  as  it 
is  apt  to  do  in  fever.  When  you  eat,  these  factories  do  a  brisk 
business,  for  they  then  have  to  make  a  good  deal  of  fluid  to  mix 
with  the  food.  It  seems  as  if  they  knew  when  it  was  necessary 
for  them  to  go  to  work  and  make  more  saliva  than  usual.  This, 
of  course,  is  not  so  ;  but  how  it  is  that  they  are  made  to  work  so 
hard  while  we  are  eating  we  do  not  know. 

The  food  of  plants  needs  moistening  just  as  our  food  does. 


20  THE    STOMACH    AND    THE    TEETH. 

Parched  plants  and  the  parched  mouth  in  fever  compa 


ed. 


The  rain  moistens  it  for  the  root,  the  stomach  of  the  plant,  so 
that  it  may  get  nourishment  from  it.  When  you  water  the  dry 
earth  in  a  flower-pot,  you  do  for  the  food  of  the  plant  what  the 
saliva  factories  do  for  your  food. 

Sometimes,  in  fever,  as  I  have  just  told  you,  the  mouth  is  very 
dry.  This  is  partly  because  the  saliva  factories  have  almost 
stopped  work ;  hardly  any  saliva  comes  through  their  canals  into 
the  mouth.  It  would  be  hard  work  then  to  eat  dry  food.  The 
dry  cracker  must  be  moistened  before  it  can  be  eaten.  This  is 
very  much  like  what  sometimes  happen  to  plants  when  there  has 
been  no  rain  for  a  long  time.  There  they  are,  with  their  roots  in 
the  ground,  just  as  they  have  been  all  along.  The  food  is  close 
to  their  little  mouths,  but  it  is  so  dry  that  they  cannot  well 
manage  it.  They  languish,  therefore,  and  perhaps  wilt.  The 
dry  earth  is  to  them  like  the  dry  cracker  to  the  fevered  mouth. 

Questions. — What  is  done  to  the  food  in  the  stomach?  What  do  the  mouths  in 
the  stomach  suck  up?  What  is  done  to  the  food  before  it  goes  into  the  stomach? 
What  is  the  use  of  grinding  the  food  ?  What  harm  does  it  do  to  eat  fast  ?  What  is 
said  about  the  food  of  plants?  What  else  is  done  to  our  food  while  the  teeth  are 
grinding  it?  Tell  about  the  working  of  the  saliva  factories.  What  is  said  about 
moistening  the  food  of  plants?     How  are  plants  sometimes  like  persons  in  a  fever? 


MORE    ABOUT   THE    TEETH.  21 


The  different  kinds  of  teeth  for  cutting,  and  tearing,  and  grinding. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MORE    ABOUT    THE   TEETH. 

Notice  that  in  the  mill  in  your  mouth  there  are  different 
kinds  of  teeth.  They  are  for  different  purposes.  The  front 
teeth  are  for  cutting  the  food  ;  the  large  back  teeth  are  for 
grinding  it  up  fine;  the  pointed  teeth,  called  the  stomach  and 
eye  teeth,  are  for  tearing  the  food. 

You  can  see  these  different  kinds  of  teeth  in  different  animals. 
Every  animal  has  such  teeth  as  it  needs  to  divide  its  food.  The 
dog  and  the  cat  eat  meat,  and  they  want  to  tear  this  to  pieces; 
they  therefore  have  long,  sharp,  tearing  teeth ;  so,  too,  have  the 
lion  and  the  tiger,  for  the  same  reason.  Now  look  at  the  cow's 
mouth :  she  has  no  tearing  teeth.  The  grass  that  she  eats  does 
not  need  to  be  torn  ;  it  needs  to  be  bruised  and  ground  up,  and 
for  this  purpose  she  has  large,  broad,  grinding  teeth.  These  are 
her  back  teeth. 

But  you  notice  that  the  cow  has  a  few  different  teeth  in  front ; 
they  are  made  to  cut.  Now  watch  a  cow  as  she  eats  grass,  and 
see  how  she  uses  these  two  kinds  of  teeth.  With  the  front  teeth 
she  bites  the  grass — that  is,  she  cuts  it ;  then  with  the  end  of  her 
tongue  she  put  it  back  where  the  grinding  teeth  are,  to  be  ground 
before  it  goes  into  the  stomach.  So  the  cow  has  in  her  mouth 
both  a  cutting-machine  and  a  mill. 

The  horse  has  these  two  kinds  of  teeth,  as  you  see  represented 


22 


MOKE    ABOUT    THE    TEETH. 


The  teeth  of  the  horse,  the  cow,  and  the  giraffe. 


in  this  figure,  which  is  the  skull 
of  a  horse. 

Now,  when  you  eat  an  apple 

you  do  very  much  as  the  cow  or 

the  horse  does  with  the  grass ; 

with   your   front   cutting  teeth 

you  bite  off  a  piece  ;  then  it  is  pushed  back  where  the  grinders 

are,  and  they  grind  it  up  into  a  soft  pulp  before  you  swallow  it. 

The  cow  does  not  always  use  her  cutting  teeth  in  the  way  that 

I  have  mentioned.  See 
her  as  she  eats  hay  ;  she 
does  not  cut  this  as  she 
does  the  grass.  With 
those  front  cutting  teeth 
she  merely  takes  up  the 
hay,  and  it  is  gradually 
drawn  back  into  the 
mouth,  the  grinders  all 


the  while  keeping  at 
work  on  it.  If  the  hay 
is  in  a  rack,  she  polls  it 
out  with  her  cutting 
:"  teeth.  It  is  the  same 
with  the  horse. 

That    beautiful    and 
singular  animal,  the  gi- 
raffe, which  you  see  here,  has  these  two  kinds  of  teeth.     This 


^"^ 


MORE  ABOUT  THE  TEETH.  23 

Tearing  teeth.  Stomachs  of  the  cow. 

animal,  when  of  full  size,  is  three  times  the  height  of  a  tall  man; 
it  lives  on  the  leaves  of  trees,  which  it  crops  with  its  front  teeth, 
grinding  them  up  with  its  large  back  teeth,  as  the  cow  and  horse 
do  their  hay  and  grass. 

You  notice  that  your  tearing  teeth  are  not  nearly  as  long  and 
powerful  as  these  teeth  are  in  dogs,  cats,  tigers,  etc.  What  is 
the  reason  of  this?  It  is  because,  although  you  eat  meat  as  they 
do,  you  can,  with  your  knife  and  fork,  cut  up  your  food.  They 
do  not  know  enough  to  use  such  things,  and  so  God  has  given 
them  long,  sharp  teeth  to  tear  their  food  to  pieces. 

The  cow  grinds  the  grass  and  hay  twice.  So  do  the  sheep,  the 
deer,  the  camel,  the  giraffe,  and  many  other  animals.  See  the 
cow  cropping  grass  in  the  pasture;  she  grinds  it  partly  in  her 
mouth  as  she  crops  it,  and  then  stows  it  away  in  a  very  large 
stomach  that  she  has  for  the  purpose ;  after  a  while  she  stops 
eating,  and  you  see  her  standing  or  lying  in  the  cool  shade  chew- 
ing her  cud,  as  we  say.  That  large  stomach  is  very  full  of  grass 
now,  and  this  is  all  to  be  chewed  over  again.  How  do  you  think 
this  is  done  ?     I  will  tell  you. 

After  the  grass  is  well  soaked  in  this  large  stomach  it  passes 
into  another,  for  the  cow  has  more  than  one  stomach — she  has 
four.  In  the  second  stomach  the  grass  is  all  rolled  into  balls. 
This  is  a  very  curious  operation.  Now  each  one  of  these  balls 
goes  up  into  the  mouth  to  be  chewed  over  again.  After  it  is 
well  chewed,  down  it  goes  again,  but  it  goes  into  still  another 
stomach,  and  then  up  comes  another  ball  to  take  its  place ;  and 
so  the  cow  goes  on  till  all  the  balls  are  chewed,     If  you  look  at 


24  MORE  ABOUT  THE  TEETH. 

u*  the  cud. 

the  cow's  neck  while  she  is  doing  this,  you  can  see  when  the  ball 
a  np  and  when  it  goes  down.     She  seems  to  have  the  same 
quiet  enjoyment  while  thus  chewing  her  cud  that  the  cat  fa 
when,  with  her  eyes  half  open,  she  lies  purring  and  wagging  her 
tail  after  a  full  meal. 

Birds,  yon  know,  have  no  teeth.  Their  mill  for  grinding  food 
d  r  in  the  mouth,  it  is  in  the  stomach.  What  we  call  the  giz- 
zard is  this  mill.  See  a  hen  pick  up  the  corn  that  you  thro  v.'  to 
her.  She  swallows  it  very  fast.  Where  do  yon  think  it  goes 
to  \  It  goes  into  a  bag  called  the  crop.  Here  it  is  soaked,  jnst 
as  the  grass  is  in  the  large  stomach  of  the  cow.  When  it  be- 
comes soft  enongh  it  goes  into  the  gizzard.  Here  it  is  crushed 
so  as  to  make  a  soft  pulp  by  being  rubbed  between  two  hard 
surfaces,  as  corn  in  a  mill  is  ground  between  two  mill-stones.  It 
you  cut  open  the  gizzard  of  a  fowl,  you  can  see  how  well  these 
surfaces  are  fitted  to  grind  up  the  corn.  They  do  it  quite  as  well 
as  teeth  would.  Birds  that  live  on  food  that  does  not  need  grind- 
ing do  not  have  a  gizzard,  but  a  common  stomach. 

: — Where  are  the  different  kinds  of  teeth  that  you  have  in  roar  month, 
and  what  are  they  for  ?  What  is  said  about  the  teetli  of  the  dog.  eat,  etc.  ?  What 
is  said  about  the  cow's  back  teeth  ?  What  of  her  front  ones  ?  Teil  how  the  cow 
.ese  two  kinds  of  teeth  in  eating  grass,  and  how  in  eating  hay.  How  do  yon 
eat  an  apple  ?  Tell  about  the  giraffe.  Tell  about  the  cow's  chewing  her  cud.  What 
is  the  crop  of  a  hird  fur?     What  is  tl.e  gizzard  for?     Do  all  birds  have  gizzards? 


THE    CIRCULATION    OF    THE   BLOOD.  25 


Arteries  and  veins.  The  heart.  The  capillaries. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    CIRCULATION    OF   THE   BLOOD. 

You  remember  that  I  told  you  in  Part  First  how  the  sap  cir- 
culates in  a  plant  or  a  tree.  It  goes  up  in  one  set  of  pipes,  and 
goes  down  in  another  set.  Just  so  it  is  with  the  blood  in  your 
body  ;  it  is  always  in  motion.  There  are  two  different  sets  of 
pipes  for  it  to  go  back  and  forth,  as  there  are  in  the  plant  for  the 
sap ;  these  two  sets  of  pipes  are  called  arteries  and  veins. 

The  blood  in  your  body  is  kept  in  motion  by  a  pump  that 
works  all  the  time,  night  and  day.  This  pump  is  in  your  chest. 
It  is  the  heart.  Put  your  ear  to  the  chest  of  some  one,  and  you 
can  hear  its  working  as  it  pumps  out  the  blood.  You  can  hear  it 
in  your  own  chest  sometimes  when  it  works  very  hard.  When 
you  have  been  running  very  fast  you  can  hear  it. 

The  heart  pumps  the  blood  out  at  every  beat  into  a  large 
artery.  From  this  great  main  pipe  other  pipes  or  arteries  branch 
out  everywhere,  and  from  these  branches  other  branches  go  out; 
dividing  in  this  way,  like  the  branches  of  a  tree,  the  arteries  at 
last  are  very  small. 

At  the  ends  of  the  arteries  there  are  exceedingly  small  vessels. 
They  are  called  capillaries,  from  the  Latin  word  capilla,  which 
means  a  hair.  They  are  really  smaller  than  the  finest  hairs,  for 
you  cannot  see  them.  When  you  cut  your  finger  you  divide  a 
great  many  of  these  vessels,  and  the  blood  oozes  out  from  them. 


26  TIIK    CIRCULATION    OF   TIIE   BLOOD. 

How  arteries  are  guarded  more  than  veins,  and  why. 

When  any  one  blushes,  these  capillaries  in  the  skin  of  the  face 
are  very  full  of  blood,  and  this  causes  the  redness.  It  is  the 
blood  in  these  little  vessels  that  makes  the  lips  red.  These  cap- 
illaries are  everywhere,  so  that  wherever  you  priek  with  a  pin 
the  blood  will  ooze  out. 

The  blood  goes  out  from  the  heart  by  one  set  of  pipes,  and 
comes  back  to  the  heart  by  another  set.  It  goes  out  from  the 
heart  by  the  arteries,  as  I  have  just  told  you ;  it  comes  back  to 
the  heart  by  the  veins. 

The  veins  lie,  some  of  them,  very  deep,  and  some  just  under 
the  skin.  You  see  some  of  them  under  the  skin  in  your  arm 
and  hand.  But  you  cannot  see  the  arteries;  they  nearly  all  lie 
deep.  Think  of  the  reason  of  this.  If  an  artery  of  any  size  is 
wounded,  it  is  not  easy  to  stop  its  bleeding,  for  the  heart  is 
pumping  blood  right  through  it;  but  it  is  easy  to  stop  the  bleed- 
ing of  a  wounded  vein,  because  the  blood  is  going  in  it  quietly 
back  to  the  heart.  Now  it  is  because  it  is  so  dangerous  to  wound 
arteries  that  God  has  placed  them  so  deep  that  they  cannot  easily 
be  wounded. 

The  Maker  of  our  bodies  has  guarded  the  arteries  in  another 
way.  He  has  made  them  much  stronger  than  the  veins.  If  they 
were  not  made  very  strong  they  would  now  and  then  burst.  You 
sometimes  see  the  hose  of  a  fire-engine  burst  when  they  are  work- 
ing the  engine  very  hard ;  but,  though  your  heart  pumps  away 
sometimes  so  fast  and  hard,  as  when  you  have  been  running,  not 
one  of  all  the  arteries  gives  way  ;  but  they  would  often  burst  if 
they  were  not  made  stronger  than  the  veins  are. 


THE    CIRCULATION   OF   THE   BLOOD.  27 

Circulation  of  the  sap.  Pumping  of  the  heart. 

The  blood  in  the  arteries  is  red  ;  but  the  blood  that  comes  back 
to  the  heart  in  the  veins  is  dark.  This  is  the  reason  that  the 
veins  which  you  see  under  the  skin  look  dark.  I  will  tell  you 
more  about  the  dark  and  the  red  blood  in  the  next  chapter. 

You  see  that  the  blood  is  kept  in  motion  in  a  different  way 
from  what  the  sap  is.  In  a  large  tree  there  is  a  great  deal  of  sap 
going  up  in  its  trunk  all  the  time,  but  there  are  no  large  pipes 
there  like  our  arteries  and  veins.  The  sap  goes  up  and  down  in 
a  multitude  of  veiw  small  pipes,  and  there  is  no  pump  in  the  tree, 
as  there  is  in  our  bodies,  and  in  the  bodies  of  other  animals. 
How  the  sap  goes  up  to  the  top  of  the  tallest  tree  without  being 
pumped  up  we  do  not  know. 

The  heart  is  at  work,  as  I  have  told  you,  all  the  time,  while 
you  are  asleep  as  well  as  when  you  are  awake.  If  it  should  stop 
pumping  the  blood,  you  would  die.  How  steadily  it  works, 
ffoins:  tick-tack  all  the  while  !  How  much  work  it  does  in  a  life- 
time  !  It  takes  but  a  few  days  for  it  to  beat  a  million  of  times ; 
and  here  I  will  give  you  something  about  this  work  of  the  heart 
that  I  wrote  in  another  book.* 

If  the  heart  could  think  and  know  and  speak,  suppose  it 
should  count  up  how  many  times  it  has  to  beat  before  the  days 
of  seventy  years  are  numbered  and  finished.  I  think  it  would 
feel  a  little  discouraged  at  the  great,  long  work  that  was  before 
it,  just  as  some  people  do  when  they  look  forward  and  think  how 
much  they  have  to  do;  but  remember  that  the  heart  has  a  mo- 
ment in  which  to  make  every  beat.    There  is  time  enough  to  do 

*  Every-day  Wonders ;  or,  Facts  in  Physiology.     American  Sunday-school  Union. 


28  THE    CIRCULATION    OF   THE    BLOOD. 

Cheerful  working.  The  discontented  pendulum. 

the  work;  it  is  not  expected  to  make  two  or  more  beats  at  once, 
but  only  one. 

As  the  heart  cannot  think,  it  does  not  faint  with  discourage- 
ment, but  goes  right  on  with  its  work,  doing  in  each  moment 
the  duty  of  that  moment;  and  it  would  be  well  if  people  that 
can  think,  whether  children  or  adults,  would  take  a  lesson  from 
this  little  busy  worker  in  their  bosoms.  If  one  goes  right  on, 
performing  cheerfully  every  duty  as  it  comes  along,  he  will  do 
a  great  deal  in  a  lifetime,  and  he  will  do  it  easily  and  pleasantly, 
if  he  does  not  keep  looking  ahead  and  thinking  how  much  he 
has  to  do. 

There  is  a  pretty  stoiy,  by  Miss  Jane  Taylor,  about  a  discon- 
tented pendulum.  The  pendulum  of  a  clock  in  a  farmer's  kitch- 
en, in  thinking  over  the  ticking  that  it  had  got  to  do,  became 
discouraged,  and  concluded  to  stop.  The  hands  on  the  clock- 
face  did  not  like  this,  and  had  a  talk  with  the  pendulum  about 
it.  The  pendulum  was,  after  a  while,  persuaded  to  begin  its 
work  again,  because  it  saw,  as  the  hands  said,  that  it  always  had 
a  moment  to  do  every  tick  in.  The  pendulum's  foolish  waste 
of  time  in  complaining  made  the  farmer's  clock  an  hour  too  slow 
in  the  morning. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  circulation  of  the  sap  and  the  blood  ?  What 
is  said  about  the  heart  ?  What  about  the  arteries  ?  What  are  the  capillaries  ?  By 
what  pipes  does  the  blood  come  back  to  the  heart  ?  Where  can  you  sec  some  of  the 
veins?  Why  are  the  arteries  laid  deeper  than  these  veins?  Why  are  they  made 
stronger  than  veins  ?  What  is  the  color  of  the  blood  in  the  arteries  ?  What  is  its 
color  in  the  veins?  Is  the  sap  kept  in  motion  in  the  same  way  that  the  blood  is? 
What  is  said  about  the  work  that  the  heart  does?     Tell  about  the  pendulum. 


BREATHING.  29 


The  blood  changed  from  dark  to  red  in  the  lungs. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

BREATHING. 

What  do  you  breathe  for  ?  That  is  plain  enough,  you  will 
say :  I  cannot  live  without  breathing.  But  why  is  it  that  your 
life  depends  on  your  breathing?     This  I  will  explain  to  you. 

You  remember  that  I  told  you  that  the  blood  that  comes  back 
to  the  heart  in  the  veins  is  dark;  it  is  not  good  blood.  It  has 
been  used  while  it  was  in  the  capillaries  in  building  and  repair- 
ing bone  and  skin  and  muscle  and  nerve,  etc.  It  is  not  fit  to 
be  used  again  so  long  as  it  is  dark  blood.  What  shall  be  done 
with  it?  It  must  be  made  in  some  way  into  good  red  blood 
again.     Now  the  factory  where  this  is  done  is  the  lungs. 

Just  as  fast  as  the  dark  blood  comes  to  the  heart,  it  sends  it  to 
the  lungs  to  be  made  into  red  blood,  then  it  goes  back  to  the 
heart  to  be  sent  all  over  the  body.  But  how,  you  will  ask,  is  the 
dark  blood  changed  into  good  red  blood  in  the  lungs?  It  is  done 
by  the  air  that  you  breathe  in ;  every  time  that  you  draw  a  breath, 
air  goes  down  into  the  lungs  and  changes  the  blood  that  it  finds 
there. 

And  now  you  see  why  it  is  that  you  have  to  breathe  to  keep 
alive.  If  the  air  does  not  go  down  into  the  lungs,  the  dark  blood 
that  is  there  is  not  changed  into  red  blood ;  it  goes  back  to  the 
heart  dark  blood,  and  is  sent  all  over  the  body ;  but  this  dark 
blood  cannot  keep  you  alive :  it  is  the  red  blood  that  does  this. 


30 


BREATniNG. 


Drowning 


Situation  of  the  heart  and  lungs. 


Yon  see,  then,  how  death  is  caused  in  drowning  ;  the  air  is  shut, 
out  by  the  water,  and  the  blood  is  not  changed  in  the  lungs,  and 
the  heart  stops  beating,  when,  of  course,  the  person  or  creature 
dies. 

The  heart  and  the  lungs  fill  up  your  chest.     The  lungs  cover 
up  the  heart,  except  a  little  part  of  it  on  the  left  side :  this  is 

where  you  can  feel  its  beating  so 
plainly.  Here  is  a  figure  of  the 
heart  and  lungs;  the  lungs  are 
drawn  apart,  so  that  you  can  see 
the  heart,  and  its  large  arteries  and 
veins.  You  see,  marked  <z,  the 
windpipe  by  which  the  air  goes 
down  into  the  lung's.  The  lun^s 
are  light,  spongy  bodies.  They  are 
light  because  the}r  are  full  of  little 
cells  for  the  air  to  go  into.  It  is 
in  these  cells  that  the  blood  is 
changed  by  the  air. 
And  now  I  will  tell  you  about  the  lungs  of  fishes.  But  per- 
haps you  will  say  that  fishes  do  not  breathe,  and  it  cannot  be 
that  they  have  lungs,  for  they  would  be  of  no  use  to  them.  It 
is  true  that  they  do  not  have  such  lungs  as  we  have ;  but  they 
have  lungs,  and  they  really  do  breathe  air.  How  is  this,  you 
will  ask,  when  they  live  in  the  water?  There  is  a  good  deal  of 
air  always  mixed  up  with  water,  and  the  lungs  of  a  fish  are  so 
made  that  the  air  in  the  water  can  change  the  blood  in  them. 


BREATHING. 


31 


How  fishes  breathe. 


Breathing  of  the  lamprey  eel. 


The  voice. 


The  gills  of  a  fish  are  its  lungs,  and  the  way  that  they  are  used 
is  this.  The  fish  takes  water  into  its  mouth,  and  lets  it  run  out 
through  the  gills,  and  so  the  air  that  is  mixed  with  the  water 
changes  the  blood  in  them.  The  gills  of  fishes  are  thin,  and  the 
arteries  and  veins  in  them  are  very  thin  tubes.  The  air  in  the 
water  easily  goes  through  the  thin  tubes,  and  the  blood  is  aired 
by  it,  as  it  is  in  the  lungs  of  land  animals;  only,  the  air  that  the 
fishes  breathe  is  mixed  with  water.  Our  lungs  are  fitted  to 
breathe  air  alone,  but  the  fish  may  be  said  to  breathe  air  and 
water  together.  Air  alone  does  the  fish  no  good;  he  cannot 
live  in  it ;  he  must  have  his  air  mixed  with  water,  or  it  is  of  no 
use  to  him. 

Here  is  a  picture  of  the  lamprey  eel.     You  see  that  it  has  a 
row  of  holes  on  its  neck ; 
these  are  openings  that 
lead  to  its  lungs  ;  there  i 
are  seven  on  each  side.  | 
It  is  from  this  that  it  is    - 
sometimes  called  seven- 
eyes.    Insects  have  such 
openings  into  their 
lungs.     The  grasshopper  has  twenty-four  of  them,  in  four  rows. 


So  you  see  that  there  are  different  ways  of  breathing  in  different 
animals.  They  do  not  all  breathe  through  their  mouths  and 
noses,  as  we  do. 

You  see  that  the  chief  use  of  breathing  is  to  air  the  blood ; 
but  it  is  of  use  to  us  in  another  way.     It  makes  the  voice.     We 


32  BREATHING. 


The  voices  of  animals.  The  purring  of  the  cat.  The  croaking  of  the  frog. 

could  not  speak  if  we  did  not  breathe.  The  sound  of  the  voice 
is  made  in  the  top  of  the  neck,  in  what  we  call  Adam's  apple. 
This  is  a  sort  of  musical  box  at  the  top  of  the  windpipe  :  in  this 
box  there  are  two  flat  cords  stretching  right  across  it.  Now, 
when  we  speak  or  sing,  the  sound  is  made  in  this  way :  the  air, 
coming  up  out  of  the  lungs,  strikes  on  these  cords,  and  makes 
them  shake  or  vibrate.  It  is  just  as  the  vibration  of  the  fiddle- 
string  makes  a  sound  when  the  bow  is  drawn  over  it.  If  you 
look  at  an  iEolian  harp  fixed  in  a  window,  you  can  see  that  the 
strings  are  made  to  quiver  by  the  wind,  and  this  causes  the 
sound.  In  the  same  way,  the  wind  that  is  blown  up  from  your 
lungs  makes  the  cords  in  the  Adam's  apple  vibrate;  and  the 
chest  may  be  said  to  be  the  bellows  of  that  little  musical  box  or 
organ  that  you  have  in  the  throat. 

Many  animals  have  a  musical  box  in  the  throat  similar  to  ours. 
The  lowing  of  the  cow,  the  barking  of  the  dog,  and  the  mewing 
and  squalling  of  the  cat  are  all  done  in  such  a  box.  You  per- 
haps have  wondered  how  the  cat  purrs.  This  noise  is  made  in 
the  same  box  where  she  does  her  mewing  and  squalling;  for  if 
you  put  your  finger  on  her  Adam's  apple  while  she  is  so  quietly 
purring,  you  can  feel  a  quivering  motion  there. 

Fishes,  you  know,  have  no  voice.  They  have  no  musical  box. 
If  they  had  they  could  not  use  it,  for  the  only  way  in  which  it 
can  be  used  is  to  blow  air  through  it.  The  frog  cannot  use  his 
so  long  as  he  is  under  water ;  he  has  to  stick  his  head  up  out  of 
water  when  he  wants  to  croak. 

Questions. — What  do  you  breathe  for  ?     How  is  the  blood  in  the  lnngs  changed  ? 


BREATHING.  S3 


Questions. 


What  would  it  do  if  it  were  not  changed?  How  is  death  caused  in  drowning? 
How  are  the  heart  and  lungs  situated?  Why  are  the  lungs  so  light?  What  is  said 
about  the  lungs  of  fishes  ?  What  is  said  about  the  breathing  of  the  lamprey  eel  ? 
What  about  the  breathing  of  the  grasshopper?  How  is  the  breathing  of  use  besides 
changing  the  blood  ?  Tell  how  the  voice  is  made.  What  is  said  about  the  voices 
of  animals  ?  Where  is  the  cat's  purring  done  ?  Why  do  fishes  have  no  musical  box  ? 
What  is  said  about  the  croaking  of  frogs  ? 

12 


34  BRAIN   AND   NERVES. 


The  use  of  food.  How  the  mind  uses  its  machinen 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

BRAIN    AND    NERVES. 

I  have  told  you  some  things  in  the  previous  chapters  about 
how  the  body  is  built  and  kept  in  repair.  I  have  told  you  that 
the  blood  is  the  building-material  from  which  all  the  parts  of 
the  body  are  made.  The  use  of  food,  you  have  seen,  is  to  make 
the  blood,  and  the  chief  use  of  the  breathing  is  to  keep  the  blood 
in  good  order.  The  heart,  with  its  arteries  and  veins,  keeps  the 
blood  moving  all  about  the  body,  so  that  it  may  be  used  in  build- 
ing and  repairing. 

Let  us  see,  now,  how  it  is  that  the  mind  uses  the  machinery 
of  the  body.  Raise  your  hand.  What  makes  it  go  up?  It  is 
what  we  call  the  muscles.  They  pull  upon  it  and  raise  it.  But 
wThat  makes  them  do  it?  They  do  it  because  you  think  to  have 
them  do  it.  It  is  your  thinking  mind,  then,  that  makes  them 
raise  the  arm. 

But  the  mind  is  not  there  among  the  muscles ;  it  is  in  your 
head.  Now  how  does  the  mind  get  at  the  muscles  to  make  them 
work?  It  does  not  go  out  of  the  brain  to  them,  just  as  a  man 
goes  out  of  his  house  among  his  workmen  to  tell  them  what  to 
do.  The  mind  stays  in  the  brain  all  the  time;  but  there  are 
white  cords,  called  nerves,  that  go  from  the  brain  to  all  parts  of 
the  body,  and  the  mind  sends  messages  by  these  to  the  muscles, 
and  they  do  what  the  mind  tells  them  to  do. 


BRAIN   AND   NERVES.  35 


Nerves  like  telegraph  wires.  The  two  sets  of  nerves. 

These  nerves  act  like  the  wires  of  a  telegraph.  The  brain  is 
the  mind's  office,  as  we  may  call  it ;  here  the  mind  is,  and  it 
sends  out  messages  by  the  nerves  as  messages  are  sent  from  a 
telegraph  office  by  its  wires.  This  is  done  by  electricity  in  the 
telegraph  office,  but  how  the  mind  does  it  we  do  not  know. 
When  you  move  your  arm,  something  goes  from  the  brain  along 
the  nerves  to  the  muscles,  and  makes  them  act,  but  what  that 
something  is  we  do  not  know. 

If  the  wires  that  go  out  from  a  telegraph  office  are  broken 
off  in  any  way,  the  man  in  the  office  may  send  out  messages,  but 
they  will  not  go  to  the  place  he  wishes.  He  may  work  his  ma- 
chine, and  send  the  electricity  along  the  wire,  but  it  will  stop 
where  the  break  is.  Just  so,  if  the  nerves  that  go  to  the  mus- 
cles of  your  arm  were  cut,  the  muscles  could  not  receive  any 
message  from  the  mind.  You  might  think  very  hard  about  rais- 
ing the  arm,  but  the  message  that  your  mind  sends  to  the  mus- 
cles is  stopped  where  the  nerves  are  cut,  just  as  the  electricity 
stops  where  the  break  is  in  the  wire. 

While  the  mind  sends  out  messages  by  one  set  of  nerves,  it 
receives  messages  by  another  set ;  it  receives  them  from  the 
senses.  Just  see  how  this  is.  If  you  put  your  finger  upon  any- 
thing, how  does  the  mind  in  your  brain  know  how  it  feels  ?  How 
does  it  know  whether  it  is  hard  or  soft,  rough  or  smooth  %  The 
mind  does  not  go  from  the  head  down  into  the  finger  to  find  out 
this ;  it  knows  it  by  the  nervous  cords  that  stretch  from  the 
brain  to  the  finger.  When  you  touch  anything,  something  goes, 
as  quick  as  a  flash,  from  the  finger  along  these  nerves  to  the 


36  BRAIN    AND   NERVES. 


The  brain.  The  nerves  of  the  face  and  head. 

brain  where  the  mind  lives,  and  lets  it  know  what  kind  of  a 
thing  it  is  that  your  finger  has  touched.  So,  when  you  smell 
anything,  it  is  the  nerves  which  connect  your  nose  with  the  brain 
that  tell  the  mind  what  kind  of  a  smell  it  is.  And  when  you 
taste  anything,  it  is  the  nerves  of  the  mouth  that  tell  the  mind  in 
the  brain  whether  it  is  bitter,  or  sweet,  or  sour,  etc.  So,  too, 
when  you  see  anything,  it  is  the  nerve  which  connects  the  eye 
with  the  brain  that  tells  the  mind  what  it  is  that  you  see. 

The  brain,  in  which  the  mind  lives  and  with  which  it  thinks, 
is  the  softest  part  of  the  body.  You  can  see  what  sort  of  a  thing 
your  own  brain  is  by  looking  at  the  brain  of  some  animal  at  the 
meat-market.  You  can  see  it  very  well  in  the  calf's  head  when 
it  is  prepared  for  cooking  by  being  sawed  in  two.  I  have  com- 
pared the  nerves  to  the  wires  that  stretch  out  from  the  tele- 
graph office  ;  but  there  are  only  a  few  wires,  while  the  nerves  that 
branch  out  from  the  brain,  all  over  your  body,  cannot  be  counted. 
On  the  following  page  is  a  figure  showing  how  the  nerves  branch 
out  over  the  face  and  head  ;  there  are  a  great  many  of  them,  and 
go  there  are  in  all  other  parts  of  the  body. 

The  nerves,  by  dividing,  spread  out,  so  that  there  are  little 
nerves  everywhere.  If  you  prick  yourself  with  a  pin  anywhere, 
there  is  a  little  nerve  there  that  connects  that  spot  with  the  brain, 
and  that  tells  the  mind  about  it.  Now  all  the  nerves  in  all  parts 
of  the  body  have  their  beginnings  in  the  brain.  In  this  soft 
organ  are  bundled  together,  as  we  may  say,  all  the  ends  of  the 
nerves,  so  that  the  mind  can  use  them.  There  the  mind  is  at 
its  post,  just  like  the  man  in  the  telegraph  office ;  and  from  that 


BRAIN   AND   NERVES. 


37 


The  mind  very  bnsy  in  attending  to  all  its  nerves. 


great  bundle  of  the  ends  of  nerves  it  is  constantly  learning  what 
is  going  on  at  the  other  ends  of  them  in  all  parts  of  the  body. 

A  great  business  the  mind  has  to  do  in  attending  to  all  these 
ends  of  nerves  in  the  brain ;  and  how  strange  it  is  that  it  does 
not  get  confused,  when  so  many  messages  are  coming  to  it  over 
its  wires  from  every  quarter!  It  always  knows  where  a  message 
comes  from.     It  never  mistakes  a  message  from  a  finger  for  one 


38  BRAIN    AND   NERVES. 


Messages  go  from  the  brain  by  some  nerves,  and  come  to  it  by  others. 

from  a  toe,  nor  even  a  message  from  one  finger  for  one  from 
another. 

And  so,  too,  in  sending  out  messages  to  the  muscles,  there  is 
no  confusion.  When  you  want  to  move  a  finger,  your  mind  sends 
messages  by  the  nerves  to  the  muscles  that  do  it.  The  message 
always  goes  to  the  right  muscles.  It  does  not  go  sometimes  to 
the  muscles  of  another  finger  by  mistake,  but  you  always  move 
the  finger  which  you  wish  to  move.  And  so  of  all  other  parts. 
Messages  go  from  your  busy  mind  in  the  brain  to  any  part  that 
you  move.  You  can  see  how  wonderful  this  is,  if  you  watch 
any  one  that  is  dancing  or  playing  on  an  instrument,  and  think 
how  the  messages  are  all  the  time  going  by  the  nerves  so  quickly 
from  the  brain  to  the  different  parts  of  the  body.  I  shall  tell 
you  more  about  this  in  another  chapter. 

The  man  in  the  telegraph  office  receives  messages  by  the  same 
wires  by  which  he  sends  them  out.  It  is  not  so,  as  I  have  told 
you  before,  with  the  mind's  wires,  the  nerves  ;  the  mind  receives 
messages  from  the  senses  by  one  set  of  nerves,  and  sends  mes- 
sages to  the  muscles  by  another  set.  If  yon  burn  your  finger, 
you  pull  it  away  from  the  fire.  Now,  in  this  case,  the  mind 
gets  a  message  from  the  finger  by  the  nerves,  and  so  knows  of 
the  hurt.  The  message  goes  from  the  finger  along  some  nerves 
to  their  ends  in  that  bundle  of  them  in  the  brain  ;  and  the  mind, 
being  there  on  the  watch,  receives  it.  Now,  what  does  the  mind 
do?  Does  it  leave  the  finger  to  burn  ?  No  ;  it  sends  a  message 
at  once  along  some  other  nerves  to  the  muscles  that  can  pull  the 
finger  out  of  harm's  way. 


BRAIN   AND   NERVES.  39 


Questions. 


Questions. — What  are  some  of  the  things  that  I  have  told  you  in  the  chapters  be- 
fore this  ?  When  your  arm  is  raised,  how  is  it  done?  In  what  way  does  the  mind 
make  the  muscles  act?  What  are  the  nerves?  How  are  they  like  telegraph  wires? 
What  is  it  that  goes  along  the  wires?  Do  we  know  what  it  is  that  goes  along  the 
nerves?  Give  the  comparison  between  cut  nerves  and  broken  wires.  From  what 
does  the  mind  receive  messages?  Tell  about  touching,  smelling,  tasting,  and  seeing. 
What  is  said  about  the  brain?  What  is  said  about  the  number  of  nerves?  What  is 
said  about  the  mind's  attending  to  all  its  nerves?  What  is  said  about  its  making  no 
mistake  in  its  messages  ?     Give  what  is  said  about  the  burning  of  a  finger. 


40  HOW  THE  MIND  GETS  KNOWLEDGE. 


Knowledge  enters  the  mind  by  the  senses. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DOW  TnE  MIND  GETS  KNOWLEDGE. 

The  mind,  as  you  learned  in  the  last  chapter,  has  a  sort  of  tele- 
graphic communication  with  all  parts  of  the  hody  by  means  of 
the  nerves,  and  it  is  all  the  time  receiving  messages  from  the 
fingers,  the  eyes,  the  nose,  the  ears,  the  mouth,  and  other  parts. 
These  are  instruments  which  the  mind  uses  to  get  a  knowledge 
of  what  is  around  us.  It  gets  different  kinds  of  knowledge  by 
the  different  instruments.  For  example,  it  learns  whether  a 
thing  is  hard  or  soft  by  the  touch  of  the  fingers,  and  it  learns 
how  it  smells  by  the  nose,  how  it  tastes  by  the  mouth,  and  how 
it  looks  by  the  eyes. 

There  is  knowledge,  then,  going  all  the  time  to  the  mind  by 
the  nerves  from  these  instruments.  It  cannot  get  there  in  any 
other  way.  Suppose  the  mind  was  locked  up  in  the  brain,  and 
had  no  nerves  going  out  from  it.  It  could  not  learn  anything 
about  what  is  around  it;  there  might  be  eyes,  and  fingers,  and 
ears,  and  a  nose,  and  a  mouth,  but  these  would  be  of  no  use  to 
the  mind  if  there  were  no  nerves. 

See  how  the  child  learns  about  the  world  of  things  all  around 
him.  When  lie  is  first  born  he  does  not  know  anything.  He 
does  not  know  how  anything  feels,  or  looks,  or  tastes,  or  smells. 
But  with  his  little  nerves  his  mind  gets  messages  from  the  senses, 
and  so  he  learns  every  day  about  the  things  that  are  around  him. 


HOW   THE   MIND    GETS   KNOWLEDGE.  41 

How  the  mind  learns  about  things.  The  deaf  and  the  blind. 

Eyes,  ears,  nose,  mouth,  and  fingers  are  all  the  time  telling  bis 
mind  something  through  the  nerves.  They  tell  him  first  about 
those  things  that  are  in  the  room  where  he  is,  and  then,  after  a 
while,  when  he  is  carried  out,  they  tell  him  about  things  that  are 
out  of  doors,  and  thus  he  knows  more  and  more  every  day. 

And  then,  too,  the  mind  thinks  about  what  the  senses  tell  it. 
It  lays  up  what  comes  to  it  by  the  nerves,  and  looks  it  over,  as 
we  may  say,  and  in  this  way  it  learns  a  great  deal.  There  is 
great  difference  in  people  in  this  thinking  about  what  the  mind 
knows  by  the  senses.  Some  that  see  and  hear  a  great  many 
things  do  not  know  as  much  as  some  that  see  and  hear  few 
things.  It  is  because  they  do  not  think  much  about  what  the 
senses  tell  the  mind. 

You  see,  then,  that  all  that  we  learn  in  this  world  really  comes 
into  the  mind  by  the  way  of  the  nerves  from  the  senses — the 
sight,  the  hearing,  the  touch,  the  smell,  and  the  taste.  The 
senses  are  the  inlets  or  openings  by  which  knowledge  enters,  and 
the  nerves  are  the  passages  by  which  it  gets  to  the  mind  in  the 
brain ;  and  after  it  gets  there  the  mind  thinks  about  it  and  uses 
it  in  various  ways. 

Some  persons,  you  know,  do  not  have  all  these  inlets  for  knowl- 
edge open.  For  example,  some  are  deaf;  in  them  no  knowledge 
can  get  into  the  mind  by  the  ears.  Some  are  blind,  and  no 
knowledge  can  get  into  their  minds  by  the  eyes.  More  knowl- 
edge comes  into  the  mind  by  the  sight  than  by  the  hearing ;  it  is 
therefore  a  greater  misfortune  to  be  blind  than  it  is  to  be  deaf. 

It  is  astonishing  to  see  how  much  the  deaf  and  the  blind  can 


42  HOW   TIIE   MIND    GETS    KNOWLEDGE. 

Deaf  aud  dumb.  How  the  blind  read.  Story  of  Laura  Bridgman. 

learn  if  they  try.  If  the  mind  is  wide  awake  and  ready  to  learn, 
it  can  get  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  even  when  one  of  the  open- 
ings for  it  is  shut  up.  It  can  use  the  knowledge  gained  by  the 
other  senses  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  up  very  much  for  the  loss. 
A  lazy  mind,  with  all  the  senses  letting  in  knowledge,  will  not 
know  as  much  as  a  busy  mind  will  with  one  of  the  senses  shut 
up.  In  the  deaf  and  dumb  the  eyes  have  to  answer  for  both 
eyes  and  ears  in  getting  knowledge.  They  have  to  do  double 
duty;  and  they  do  it  very  well  if  the  mind  is  only  wide  awake 
and  attentive  to  all  that  it  can  learn  by  the  eyes.  In  the  blind 
the  ears  have  to  do  a  great  deal  more  than  in  those  that  can  see. 
The  fingers  also  of  the  blind  are  very  busy,  for  they  learn  very 
much  about  what  is  around  them  by  the  sense  of  feeling.  There 
are  books  now  made  for  their  use,  with  raised  letters.  By  pass- 
ing their  fingers  over  them,  they  read  just  as  you  do  by  looking 
at  printed  letters. 

And  now  I  will  tell  you  about  a  girl  that  has  had  to  get  all  her 
knowledge  with  only  one  of  the  senses,  the  sense  of  feeling. 
Her  name  is  Laura  Bridgman.  When  she  was  in  her  second 
year  she  became  very  sick.  Her  sickness  lasted  a  very  long  time. 
After  she  got  well  it  was  found  that  she  was  blind  and  deaf,  and 
that  she  had  no  taste  nor  smell;  only  one  of  the  five  inlets  for 
knowledge  was  open.  All  that  could  come  into  her  mind  was 
what  could  be  learned  by  the  touch  alone.  But  she  had  an 
active  mind,  and  so  she  went  round  feeling  of  everything,  to 
find  out  all  she  could  about  things. 

The  only  way  that  she  could  know  people  was  by  feeling  them. 


HOW   THE   MIND   GETS    KNOWLEDGE.  43 

Lanra  in  the  asylum. 

Her  mother  was  very  kind  to  her,  and  the  little  helpless  girl 
liked  to  be  with  her  all  the  time.  She  followed  her  about  the 
house,  and  tried  to  do  things  just  as  her  mother  did  them.  She 
would  feel  of  her  mother's  arms  and  hands  while  she  was  doing 
things,  that  she  might  find  out  how  she  did  them.  In  this  way 
she  learned  to  knit,  which  was  a  great  comfort  to  her,  for  she 
did  not  like  to  be  idle. 

A  kind  physician,  who  had  charge  of  an  asylum  for  the  blind 
in  Boston,  heard  about  Laura.  He  was  much  interested  for  the 
helpless  child,  and  went  to  see  her.  He  persuaded  her  mother 
to  let  her  come  to  the  asylum.  Laura  did  not  feel  at  home  at 
first,  but,  as  they  were  all  kind  to  her  in  the  asylum,  she  soon 
liked  it  very  much. 

She  now  began  to  learn  many  things,  and  I  will  tell  you  a 
little  how  the  teacher  managed  with  her.  He  put  into  her  hands 
different  things — spoons,  keys,  books,  etc.  Each  article  had  a 
label  on  it.  The  letters  on  the  labels  were  raised  letters,  such  as 
are  used  in  teaching  the  blind.  She  would  feel  them  all  over 
with  the  tips  of  her  little  fingers,  her  busy  mind  all  the  time 
thinking  about  how  they  felt.  Then  the  labels  and  the  things 
were  put  before  her,  but  separated  from  each  other.  After  a 
little  trying,  she  learned  to  put  the  labels  on  the  things  right. 

All  this  time  she  did  not  know  that  these  labels  had  the  names 
of  the  articles  on  them.  If  she  were  blind  only,  she  would  have 
known  this  at  once,  for  she  could  have  been  told  of  it;  but  after 
a  while  she  in  some  way  got  this  idea  into  her  mind.  She  was 
delighted,  for  she  had  now  found  a  new  way  of  learning  things, 
and  of  telling  about  things  to  others. 


44  UOW   THE   MIND    GETS    KNOWLEDGE. 

How  Lanra  learned  to  read  and  to  converse. 

And  now  Laura  went  on  fast  with  her  learning.  The  letters 
were  separated,  and  she  would  put  them  together  so  as  to  spell 
spoon,  key,  etc.  This  was  a  great  amusement  to  her.  Some- 
times, when  she  carelessly  placed  the  letters  wrong,  she  would 
playfully  strike  her  right  hand  with  her  left  one,  and  then,  when 
the  letters  were  placed  right,  she  would  pat  her  head,  as  the 
teacher  was  apt  to  do  when  he  was  pleased  with  anything  that 
she  had  done. 

After  a  while  the  teacher  taught  Laura  to  use  her  fingers  in 
talking,  as  you,  perhaps,  have  seen  the  deaf  and  dumb  do.  She 
soon  learned  to  make  all  the  letters  in  this  finger-alphabet,  which 
you  can  see  on  page  102 ;  and  now  she  could  talk  with  people 
quite  easily,  if  they  happened  to  know  this  alphabet.  When  she 
had  anything  to  say,  she  would  make  the  letters  with  the  fingers, 
while  the  person  to  whom  she  was  talking  would  look  at  her. 
But  how  do  you  think  that  she  managed  when  this  person  said 
anything  to  her  with  his  fingers?  She  could  not  see  his  fingers, 
but  she  could  feel  them,  and  this  was  the  way  in  which  she  knew 
what  was  said  to  her ;  she  would  carefully,  but  rapidly,  pass  her 
fingers  over  his  as  fast  as  he  made  the  letters.  It  was  surprising 
to  see  how  quickly  the  touch  of  her  nimble  fingers  would  tell 
her  mind  what  letter  was  made,  and  how  fast  she  could  converse 
with  persons  in  this  way. 

Laura  learned  much  more  at  the  asylum  than  we  should  sup- 
pose she  could  with  only  her  one  sense  of  touch.  Some  persons 
with  the  whole  five  senses  do  not  know  as  much  as  she  does. 
She  even  learned  to  write ;  and  writing  and  knitting  were  very 


HOW   THE   MIND   GETS   KNOWLEDGE.  45 

Laura's  industry.  Her  fan.  A  visit  from  her  mother. 

pleasant  employments  to  her.  By  writing  she  could  put  the 
thoughts  of  her  busy  mind  on  paper,  so  that  others  might  read 
them;  and  while  she  was  sitting  alone  thinking,  she  liked  to 
make  her  nimble  fingers  useful  in  knitting.  It  was  a  great  satis- 
faction to  her  that,  though  she  had  but  one  sense,  she  could  do 
something  useful.  "What  a  pity  it  is  that  many  children,  and 
many  adults  too,  do  not  have  more  of  this  feeling  than  they 
seem  to  have !  The  example  of  Laura  teaches  a  good  lesson  to 
all  idlers. 

Though  Laura  could  never  see  beautiful  things,  nor  hear 
pleasant  sounds,  as  you  do  all  the  time,  she  was  very  cheerful, 
and  sometimes  she  was  very  funny.  She  liked  to  play  with  her 
doll ;  and  as  the  blind  children  in  the  asylum  had  ribbons  tied  over 
their  sightless  eyes,  she  tied  one  over  her  dolFs  eyes.  One  day 
she  was  in  her  play  taking  care  of  her  doll  as  one  would  of  a 
sick  child.  She  made  believe  give  it  medicine,  and  put  a  hot 
bottle  to  its  feet ;  and  when  some  one  proposed  to  her  to  put  a 
blister  on  its  back,  she  was  so  much  amused  that  she  laughed  and 
clapped  her  hands. 

After  Laura  had  been  some  time  at  the  asylum  her  mother 
came  to  see  her.  She  did  not  know  her  mother  at  first,  but 
thought  that  she  was  some  stranger.  She  held  back  and  would 
not  come  near.  Her  mother  handed  her  a  string  of  beads  which 
she  used  to  wear  when  at  home.  She  took  them,  and  as  soon  as 
she  felt  them  she  knew  what  beads  they  were.  She  put  them 
on  her  neck,  and,  showing  great  joy,  said  with  her  finger-language 
that  she  knew  these  came  from  home.     Something  else  from 


4:6  HOW   THE   MIND   GETS    KNOWLEDGE. 

How  Laura  knew  her  mother. 

home  was  given  her.  She  now  drew  near  and  her  mother  kissed 
her.  The  moment  that  her  mother's  lips  touched  her  she  knew 
who  it  was,  for  that  kiss  was  just  like  the  many  kisses  her  loving 
mother  used  to  give  her.  She  remembered  how  those  lips  used 
to  feel,  and  they  had  the  same  feeling  now ;  and  now  she  clung 
to  her  mother,  and  put  her  head  into  her  bosom.  They  were 
both  very  happy.  When  her  mother  left  her  Laura  felt  sad  in- 
deed. She  wanted  to  go  with  her,  but  she  knew  that  it  was  best 
for  her  to  stay  in  the  asylum,  where  she  could  learn  so  much. 

Questions. — What  are  the  instruments  by  which  the  mind  gets  its  knowledge? 
How  does  the  knowledge  get  to  the  mind  ?  What  good  would  the  instruments  do 
if  there  were  no  nerves  ?  Tell  how  the  child,  when  first  born,  learns  about  things 
around  him.  What  is  said  about  thinking  of  what  is  learned  by  the  senses  ?  Why 
may  the  senses  be  called  the  inlets  of  knowledge  ?  Tell  about  the  deaf  and  the  blind. 
Why  is  it  worse  to  be  blind  than  it  is  to  be  deaf?  What  is  said  about  the  amount 
of  knowledge  that  the  blind  and  the  deaf  can  obtain  ?  What  is  said  about  the  sense  of 
sight  in  the  deaf  and  dumb  ?  What  senses  do  the  blind  chiefly  use  in  getting  knowl- 
edge? How  do  they  read?  How  many  of  the  senses  did  Laura  Bridgman  lose? 
How  did  she  learn  about  things  before  she  went  to  the  asylum  ?  Tell  how  she  learned 
after  she  went  there.  How  did  she  talk  with  people?  Tell  about  her  industry. 
What  is  said  of  her  cheerfulness  ?  What  of  her  fun  ?  Tell  about  her  mother's 
visit. 


SEEING.  47 


The  eye  a  beautiful  instrument.  Its  window  and  dark  chamber. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SEEING. 

The  senses  by  which  the  mind  obtains  most  of  its  knowledge 
are  the  sight  and  the  hearing.  In  this  chapter  we  will  look  at 
the  organ  or  instrument  of  sight. 

The  eye  is  a  very  beautiful  instrument.  It  is  very  nicely 
made,  and  it  has  a  great  many  different  parts.  You  are  not  old 
enough  yet  to  understand  all  about  these  parts,  but  there  are 
some  things  about  them  that  I  can  explain  to  you. 

What  we  call  the  white  of  the  eye  is  a  strong,  firm  sort  of  bag. 
It  is  filled  mostly  with  a  jelly-like  substance.  It  is  this  that 
makes  it  a  firm  ball.  If  it  were  empty  it  would  be  like  a  bag. 
Into  the  open  part  of  this,  in  front,  is  fitted  a  clear  window. 
The  light  goes  in  here.  It  cannot  get  in  at  the  sides  of  the 
eyeball,  through  the  thick  white  of  the  eye. 

Through  this  very  clear  window  you  can  look  into  the  bag  or 
ball  of  the  eye.  You  cannot  look  through  the  jelly-like  sub- 
stance that  is  there,  and  see  the  very  back  of  the  inside  of  the 
eyeball ;  but  it  is  like  looking  into  a  dark  chamber.  The  reason 
that  it  is  so  dark  is,  that  it  is  lined  with  something  almost  black. 
If  this  were  not  so,  the  eyes  would  be  dazzled  with  the  light 
that  commonly  goes  into  them,  just  as  they  now  are  when  the 
light  is  very  bright  indeed. 

Inside  of  the  front  window  of  the  eye,  that  I  have  told  you 


48  SEEING. 


The  iris  the  curtain  in  the  eye.  The  pupil  a  round  opening  in  it 

about,  there  is  a  fluid  as  clear  as  water.  In  this  fluid  you  see  a 
sort  of  curtain  with  a  round  opening  in  it.  This  opening  is 
called  the  pupil  of  the  eye.  It  is  not  always  of  the  same  size. 
When  there  is  a  very  bright  light,  it  is  small ;  but  when  the 
light  is  dim,  it  is  large,  for  then  you  want  all  the  light  that  you 
can  get  in  that  dark  chamber  where  the  jelly  is.  You  can  see 
the  pupil  change  in  its  size  if  you  look  into  the  eye  of  any  one 
while  you  bring  a  light  very  near,  and  then  move  it  off  quickl}7. 

The  curtain  in  which  this  opening  is  we  call  the  iris.  It  is 
circular.  Its  outer  edge  is  fastened  all  round  to  the  inside  of 
the  eyeball.  The  watery  fluid,  that  I  told  you  is  inside  of  the 
window  of  the  eye,  is  on  both  sides  of  this  curtain.  It  would 
not  do  to  have  the  jelly  here,  for  the  curtain  would  not  move 
easily  in  that  in  changing  the  size  of  its  opening. 

The  iris  is,  you  know,  of  different  colors  in  different  persons. 
When  it  is  blue,  we  say  that  the  person  has  a  blue  eye ;  and  if  it 
is  quite  dark,  we  say  that  he  has  a  black  eye ;  and  so  of  other 
colors.  This  curtain  makes  the  eye  very  beautiful ;  but  its  chief 
use  is,  as  you  see,  to  regulate  the  quantity  of  light  that  goes  into 
the  eye.  When  there  is  a  great  deal  of  light,  the  curtain  is 
drawn  in  such  a  way  as  to  have  the  round  opening  very  small ; 
but  when  there  is  little  light,  it  is  drawn  so  as  to  make  this  open- 
ing large.  This  curtain  must  be  made  very  nicely,  or  it  would 
be  puckered  when  the  opening  in  it  is  changed  in  this  way.  No 
man  could  make  a  curtain  of  this  shape,  and  have  it  work  like 
this  :  it  would  be  a  very  awkward  thing  if  he  should  undertake 
it.     He  could  not  possibly  make  it  so  that  the  round  opening  in 


SEEING.  49 


The  pupil  in  the  eye  of  the  cat  and  the  horse. 


it  could  be  made  smaller  and  larger  without  wrinkling.  But 
look  at  this  beautiful  curtain  in  the  eye,  and  see  how  smooth  it 
is,  and  how  perfectly  round  its  edge  keeps,  as  the  size  of  the 
pupil  is  changed.  Did  you  ever  see  anything  work  more  prettily 
and  easily  than  this  does? 

The  opening  in  the  curtain  is  different  in  different  animals. 


In  the  cat  it  is  of  this  shape  ;  in  the  horse  it  is  shaped  in 


this  way  (  J.     The  pupil  of  the  cat's  eye  is  de- 

signed by  nature  to  be  vertically  lengthened,  that  the  creature 
may  easily  see  things  above  and  beneath.  Their  habits  lead  them 
either  to  look  up  or  down  ;  up  to  rocks  or  boughs  of  trees,  or 
down  to  the  ground,  if  they  chance  to  be  on  the  rocks  or  trees. 
If  the  pupil  is  oval,  or  lengthened  upwards  and  downwards,  or 
vertically,  the  cats  can  wTatch  their  prey  without  moving  the 
head,  the  long  pupil  takes  in  all  that  is  before  it. 

The  pupil  of  the  horse  and  the  cattle -like  creatures,  that 
must  graze,  have  the  pupil  horizontal,  or  sidewise,  because  the 
creatures  require  good  vision  on  either  side,  that  no  enemy 
may  approach  them  unaware  from  behind.  You  can  see  the 
difference  in  the  size  of  the  cat's  pupil  in  different  lights:  if 
you  look  at  her  eyes  in  a  bright  sunlight,  and  then  again  in 
the  evening,  you  will  see  that  it  is  very  much  larger  in  the 

13 


50  SEEING. 


The  images  in  the  eye's  dark  chamber. 


evening  than  it  is  in  the  day.     When  the  sun  is  very  bright, 


her  pupil  is  a  mere  chink,  like  this 


;  but  in  the  evening  it  is 


very  wide   open,  shaped   in    tin's   way 


But  I  have  not  yet  told  you  how  you  see.  It  is  done  in  this 
way.  The  light  that  goes  in  through  the  pupil  makes  an  image 
or  picture  there  of  everything  that  is  before  the  eye.  It  makes 
the  image  on  a  very  thin  sheet  spread  out  on  the  back  part  of 
the  dark  chamber  where  the  jelly  is;  it  is  just  as  light  makes 
images  of  things  in  a  looking-glass,  or  in  the  smooth,  still  water; 
the  only  difference  is,  that  the  image  or  picture  in  the  eye  is  very 
small.  When  you  see  a  tree  pictured  in  the  still  water,  the  pict- 
ure is  as  large  as  the  tree  itself  ;  but  the  picture  that  the  light 
makes  of  the  tree  in  that  dark  chamber  of  your  eye  is  very  small. 
The  picture  in  your  eye  of  a  whole  landscape,  with  all  its  trees, 
houses,  hills,  etc.,  does  not  cover  over  a  space  larger  than  a  ten- 
cent  piece. 

We  may  see  how  the  image  of  anything  is  pictured  on  the 
back  of  the  dark  chamber  of  the  e}Te  by  a  very  simple  contri- 
vance. 

A  rude  way  is  sometimes  seen  in  some  dark  shed  that  has  no 
window  nor  any  admitted  light  when  the  door  is  closed.    Knot- 


SEEING.  51 


The  retina.  The  eye  compared  to  a  camera-obscnra. 

holes  are  sometimes  seen  in  such,  that  are  so  circular  and  so 
smooth  they  produce  the  effect  of  a  lens.  Should  a  white  sheet 
be  placed  on  the  side  of  the  shed,  directly  opposite  the  hole,  and 
there  is  no  other  light  admitted,  the  images  of  all  that  chance  to 
be  before  the  hole  outside  are  pictured,  in  the  beautiful  colors 
of  nature,  on  the  cloth.  If  you  or  your  companions  should  stand 
there,  outside,  you  would  also  be  shown  on  the  cloth.  'Now, 
this  is  just  what  happens  all  the  time  in  our  eyes  when  there  is 
light  enough.  There  is  a  picture  of  just  what  is  before  our  eyes, 
and  that  picture  is  on  the  back  part  of  the  eye,  on  a  network 
of  nerves  called  the  retina.  This  is  sight.  The  wonderful 
photographic  pictures  are  taken  in  a  similar  way,  by  a  camera 
instead  of  a  dark  room.  If  we  use  a  small  box  and  put  a  glass 
lens  into  the  hole,  there  will  be  a  more  perfect  picture  thrown 
on  the  cloth  behind  it.  If,  instead  of  a  cloth,  we  use  a  glass 
plate,  the  picture  is  seen  on  the  glass.  Photographers  have  a 
preparation  of  bromide  substance  and  nitrate  of  silver  with 
which  they  coat  the  glass ;  this  fastens  the  picture,  and  when 
the  glass  is  taken  out  it  is  seen  to  be  a  small,  exact  copy  of 
that  which  was  placed  before  the  hole  in  the  box.  This  is  a 
simple  explanation  of  photography,  or  the  art  of  taking  pict- 
ures by  the  use  of  the  camera-obscura,  the  name  given  to  such 
dark  boxes  as  are  used. 

The  photographer's  box  is  like  the  eye,  and  is  an  imitation  of 
it. 

But  how  does  the  mind  in  the  brain  know  anything  about 
these  pictures?     It  knows  about  them  by  means  of  a  nerve, that 


52  SEEING. 


The  nerve  of  the  eye.  Why  we  have  two  eyes.  The  eyes  of  insects. 

goes  from  the  brain  to  the  eye,  and  is  spread  out  where  the  pict- 
ures or  images  are  made.  It  would  do  no  good  to  have  the 
pictures  made  in  the  eye,  if  the  nerve  could  not  tell  the  mind 
about  them.  The  eye  might  be  perfect,  and  yet  there  might 
not  be  any  seeing.  It  is  as  necessary  to  have  the  nerve  in  good 
order  as  it  is  the  eye  itself.  It  is  not  your  eye  that  sees,  it  is 
your  mind,  and  in  seeing  it  uses  both  the  nerve  and.  the  eye. 

You  have  two  eyes.  When  you  look  at  one  thing,  say  a  house, 
there  is  a  picture  of  the  house  in  both  eyes.  The  two  nerves 
tell  the  mind  in  the  brain  about  the  two  pictures.  How  is  this? 
Why  does  not  the  mind  see  two  houses?  It  is  because  the  pict- 
ures in  the  two  eyes  are  exactly  alike,  and  both  nerves,  therefore, 
tell  exactly  the  same  story  ;  if  the}'  did  not,  then  the  mind  wTould 
see  two  houses ;  that  is,  it  would  see  double,  as  it  is  called.  You 
can  see  double  by  pressing  one  eye  sidcwise  while  you  let  the 
other  go  free. 

The  eyes  of  insects  are  very  curious.  Yrou  remember  what  I 
told  you  about  compound  flowers.  Now,  as  in  a  compound 
flower  there  are  a  great  many  flowers  together,  so  it  is  with  the 
eyes  of  insects.  The  eye  of  a  common  fly  is  made  up  of  thou- 
sands of  eyes ;  so,  when  he  looks  at  anything,  there  are  thousands 
of  very  little  images  of  it  made  by  the  light  in  these  eyes,  and 
the  nerves  tell  the  fly's  mind,  in  his  little  brain,  about  them. 
These  eyes  are  so  exceedingly  small  that  you  cannot  see  them 
without  a  microscope.  How  fine,  then,  must  be  the  nerves  that 
go  from  them  to  the  fly's  brain !  Yrour  eye  is  a  very  wonderful 
instrument,  but  God  has  put  thousands  of  them  just  as  wonder- 


SEEING.  53 


Questions. 


ful  into  the  head  of  the  fly  that  buzzes  about  you.  It  is  as  easy 
for  him  to  make  little  eyes  as  large  ones,  and  he  can  make  a 
multitude  as  easily  as  one. 

Questions. — By  what  senses  does  the  mind  learn  the  most?  "What  is  the  white  of 
the  eye  ?  What  is  it  filled  with  ?  What  is  there  in  the  front  part  of  the  eye  ?  What 
is  said  about  the  dark  chamber  of  the  eyeball  ?  What  is  just  inside  of  the  front 
window  of  the  eye  ?  What  is  the  pupil  of  the  eye  ?  What  is  the  iris  ?  How  is  it 
arranged?  What  is  said  of  its  color?  What  is  its  chief  use?  Tell  about  this. 
What  is  said  about  its  being  made  nicely?  What  is  said  about  the  shape  of  its  open- 
ing in  different  animals?  Why  is  the  pupil  of  the  cat's  eye  lengthened  up  and  down, 
or  vertically  ?  Why  is  the  pupil  of  the  horse's  eye  and  that  of  other  grazing  animals 
placed  crosswise,  or  horizontally?  What  is  said  about  the  cat's  pupil  in  different 
lights  ?  What  simple  way  is  there  to  represent  the  chamber  of  the  eye  ?  What  is 
the  retina?  How  does  the  photographer's  box,  or  camera,  resemble  the  eye?  Tell 
about  the  images  made  in  the  eye.  What  is  said  about  the  nerve  of  the  eye  ?  How 
is  it  that,  with  two  eyes,  you  do  not  see  double?  Why  do  you  have  two  eyes  ?  What 
is  said  about  the  eyes  of  insects  ? 


54  HOW   THE    EYE    IS    GUARDED. 


The  eye  seldom  hart.  How  it  is  guarded  with  the  bones  mound  it. 


CHAPTER   XL 

HOW   THE    EYE    IS    GUARDED. 

The  eye,  you  know,  is  a  very  tender  organ.  It  is  therefore 
guarded  thoroughly,  and  it  is  really  very  seldom  hurt.  But 
notice  that  it  is  just  where  it  would  be  likely  to  be  hurt  if  it 
were  not  thus  guarded.  It  is  right  in  the  front  part  of  the  head. 
It  must  be  there  for  the  mind  to  use  it  in  seeing.  And  it  is 
much  of  the  time  open.  You  would  suppose,  then,  that  it  must 
very  often  be  struck  and  hit  by  things  that  are  thrown  about ; 
but  it  is  really  very  seldom  hit  so  as  to  be  hurt  much. 

The  parts  about  the  eye  are  often  injured,  but  the  eye  itself 
generally  escapes.  We  often  see  the  eyelids  and  the  cheek  black 
and  blue  from  a  blow,  and  yet  the  tender  and  delicate  eye  is  as 
sound  as  ever.  People  say,  in  such  cases,  that  the  eye  is  black 
and  blue,  but  this  is  not  so ;  the  injury  is  all  on  the  outside,  and 
does  not  go  into  the  eye. 

Now  let  us  see  in  what  ways  the  eye  is  guarded.  It  is  in  a 
deep,  bony  socket.  There  is  bone  all  around  it  except  in  front. 
Then,  too,  see  how  the  bones  stand  out  all  around  it.  The  bone 
of  the  forehead  juts  over  it.  Below  and  to  the  outside  stands 
out  the  cheek  bone,  and  the  nose  is  its  Avail  on  the  inside.  Now 
you  can  see  that  a  blow  with  a  stick  would  be  very  likely  to 
strike  upon  some  of  these  walls  of  bone,  and  the  eye  would  then 
escape.     They  are  real  walls  of  defence  to  the  eye.    A  stick  can- 


HOW   THE    EYE   IS    GUARDED.  55 

The  winking  muscle.  The  eye's  cushion  of  fat. 

not  hit  the  eve  itself  unless  it  goes  with  its  end  pointed  to  the 
eye.  It  must  go  in  this  way  to  avoid  striking  on  these  walls,  or 
parapets  of  bone,  by  which  the  eye  is  surrounded. 

But  if  the  stick  gets  by  these  bony  walls,  it  may  not  hurt  the 
eye,  after  all.  Perhaps  you  never  thought  what  use  there  is  in 
being  able  to  wink  so  quickly.  See  what  winking  does.  It 
shuts  the  eyelids  over  the  eye,  so  that  nothing  can  get  into  it 
unless  it  is  something  sharp  enough  to  pierce  through  the  lids. 
And  a  blow  will  not  hurt  the  eye,  if  the  lids  are  closed,  unless 
it  is  hard  enough  to  bruise  it  through  the  lids. 

How  quick  is  the  working  of  that  w7inking  muscle  !  The  mo- 
ment that  the  eye  sees  anything  coming  towards  it  that  may  in- 
jure it,  this  muscle  shuts  up  the  eye  out  of  sight  as  quick  as  a 
iiash.  It  hardly  seems  as  if  there  was  time  for  a  message  to  go 
from  the  eye  to  the  brain,  and  then  another  back  from  the  brain 
to  that  muscle  in  the  lids.  But  all  this  happens.  The  nerve  of 
the  eye  tells  the  mind  of  the  danger,  and  the  mind  sends  a  mes- 
sage to  the  winking  muscle.  This  is  done  so  quickly  that  when- 
ever people  speak  of  anything  as  being  done  very  quickly,  they 
are  very  apt  to  say  that  it  was  done  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 
This  expression  is  used  in  the  Bible  in  this  way. 

But  I  have  not  told  you  all  that  this  winking  muscle  does.  It 
does  something  more  than  shut  the  eye  in.  It  pushes  it  back  in 
its  socket,  so  that  it  is  a  little  farther  out  of  the  way  of  a  blow. 
And  it  does  not  push  it  right  against  the  hard  bone  of  the  socket ; 
there  is  a  soft  cushion  of  fat  for  it  to  press  the  eye  against. 

And  this  is  not  all.     When  the  eye  sees  a  blow  coming,  this 


50 


HOW   THE    EYE    IS    GUARDED. 


The  winking  muscles  raise  cushions  over  the  eye  to  defend  it. 

muscle  acts  so  strongly  that  it  wrinkles  the  skin  of  the  eyelids, 

and  pulls  down  the  eyebrow,  and 
draws  up  the  cheek,  as  you  see 
here.  Now,  see  how  this  guards 
the  eye.  The  cheek  and  the  eye- 
brow are  brought  so  near  together 
that  there  is  but  little  room  for  the 
blow  to  get  at  the  eye ;  and  even 
if  it  does,  the  wrinked  skin  of  the 
lids  makes  a  cushion  over  it  that 
breaks  the  force  of  the  blow.  You 
can  see  that  the  blow  would  be 
much  more  apt  to  do  harm  if  the 
winking  muscle  merely  brought  the  lids  together.  As  it  is,  a 
blow  commonly  hits  on  the  eyebrow  or  cheek,  or  both,  while  the 
eye  is  safe,  shut  up  and  pushed  back  in  its  cavern  upon  its 
cushion  of  fat.  To  see  how  much  the  bringing  together  of  the 
cheek  and  eyebrow  defends  the  eye,  you  must  look  at  some  one 
as  he  forcibly  closes  the  eye,  as  represented  in  the  figure.  And 
if,  at  the  same  time,  you  put  your  finger  on  the  parts,  you  will 
see  how  the  cushions  which  all  this  wrinkling  makes  over  the 
eye  and  about  its  socket  defend  it  from  harm. 

So  you  see  that  not  only  is  the  eye  guarded  by  parapets  of 
bone,  but  the  busy  winking  muscle  raises  up  cushions  on  them 
whenever  the  eye  sees  a  blow  coming.  These  cushions  often 
save  the  bone  from  being  cracked,  and  in  this  way  also  keep 
the  eye  from  being  hurt. 


HOW  THE   EYE    IS    GUARDED.  57 

The  eyebrows.  The  eyelashes.  How  the  tears  defend  the  eye. 

Of  what  use  do  you  think  the  hairs  on  the  eyebrows  are? 
They  are  for  good  looks,  you  will  say.  But  they  are  for  some- 
thing more  than  this;  they  are  a  defence  to  the  eye.  How  this 
is  I  will  explain  to  yon.  You  know  what  the  eaves  of  a  house 
are  for  when  there  is  no  trough  to  the  roof ;  they  keep  the  rain 
from  running  down  from  the  roof  on  the  sides  of  the  house. 
They  make  it  drop  off  to  the  ground  a  little  way  from  the  house. 
Just  so  the  hairy  eyebrows  make  the  sweat  of  the  forehead  drop 
off  upon  the  cheek,  instead  of  running  down  into  the  eye.  The 
eyebrows,  then,  are  the  eaves  of  the  roof  of  the  eye's  house. 

Perhaps  you  will  ask  what  hurt  the  sweat  would  do  if  it  should 
run  down  into  the  eye.  It  would  be  very  disagreeable ;  and, 
besides  this,  it  would  irritate  the  eye  and  make  it  red.  The 
eye  would  become  inflamed. 

The  eyelashes,  too,  besides  making  the  eye  look  well,  are  a  de- 
fence to  it.  You  know  that  there  are  often  small  things  flying 
about  in  the  air  which  we  are  not  apt  to  see.  If  these  fly  against 
the  eye,  they  generally  hit  against  the  eyelashes,  and  so  are  pre- 
vented from  going  into  the  eye. 

The  tears,  also,  are  a  defence  to  the  eye.  If  anything  hap- 
pens to  get  by  the  eyelashes  into  the  eye,  how  quick  the  tears 
flow  to  wash  it  out !  Commonly  the  gland,  or  tear  factory,  onty 
makes  enough  tears  to  keep  the  eye  a  little  moist;  but  as  soon 
as  anything  gets  into  the  eye  and  irritates  it,  the  tear  factory 
sets  to  work  briskly,  and  sends  down  the  tears  abundantly.  At 
the  same  time,  the  winking  muscle  keeps  moving  the  lids,  and 
generally  what  is  in  the  eye  is  soon  washed  out. 


58  nOW   TIIE    EYE   IS    GUARDED. 

The  sink-drain  of  the  eye.  In  weeping  the  tears  overflow  their  bauks. 

Tears  are  flowing  into  the  eye  all  the  time.  If  they  did  not, 
the  ej'eball  and  the  inside  of  the  lids  would  become  dry,  and  they 
would  not  move  easily  on  each  other.  You  would  have  to  keep 
wetting  them  with  water  to  prevent  them  from  rubbing.  The 
tear  factory,  which  is  just  above  the  eye,  continually  sends  down, 
through  some  little  tubes  or  ducts,  just  enough  tears  to  make  the 
motion  of  the  eye  and  the  lids  easy. 

But  you  will  ask  where  the  tears  that  are  made  go.  They  do 
not  commonly  run  out  over  the  lids,  and  they  must  go  some- 
where. I  will  tell  you  about  this.  If  you  look  at  the  eyelids 
of  any  one,  you  can  see  in  each  lid  a  little  hole  at  the  end  of  the 
edge  towards  the  nose.  The  tears  go  into  these  holes,  and  down 
through  a  duct  that  ends  in  the  nose.  This  duct  may  be  called 
the  sink-drain  of  the  eye,  for  the  tears,  after  washing  the  eye, 
run  off  through  it.  The  two  little  holes  or  mouths  in  the  lids 
commonly  take  in  all  the  tears  as  fast  as  they  come  to  them ; 
but  when  we  cry,  the  tear  factory  makes  tears  so  fast  that  these 
mouths  cannot  take  them  all  in.  The  tears,  therefore,  overflow 
their  banks — the  lids — and  run  down  on  the  cheek. 

Questions. — Is  the  eye  in  a  very  exposed  situation  ?  Why  is  it  seldom  much  hurt? 
Are  the  parts  about  it  often  hurt  ?  Tell  how  the  bones  about  the  eye  defend  it.  Of 
what  use  is  winking?  What  is  said  about  the  quickness  with  which  it  is  done? 
What  else  does  the  winking  muscle  do  besides  shutting  the  eye  ?  What  does  it  push 
the  eye  back  upon?  What  else  does  this  muscle  do  besides  what  has  been  men- 
tioned? How  does  this  defend  the  eye?  On  what  does  a  blow  aimed  at  the  eye 
commonly  hit?  Of*  what  use  are  the  hairs  on  the  eyebrows?  What  harm  would 
the  sweat  do  if  it  van  down  into  the  eye  ?  Of  what  use  are  the  eyelashes  ?  In  what 
ways  do  the  tears  prevent  the  eyes  from  being  injured?  Where  do  the  tears  go  to 
from  the  eye  ?     What  happens  when  one  cries  ? 


HEARING.  59 


What  sound  is.  The  experiment  of  scratching  on  a  log  with  a  pin. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

HEARING. 

What  is  sound  ?  If  you  look  at  a  large  bell  when  it  is  struck, 
you  can  see  a  quivering  or  shaking  in  it.  If  you  put  your  hand 
on  it,  you  can  feel  the  quivering.  It  is  this  that  makes  the  sound 
that  we  hear.  You  can  see  the  same  thing  in  the  strings  of  a 
piano  when  they  are  struck,  and  in  the  strings  of  a  violin  as  the 
bow  is  drawn  over  them.  The  wind  makes  the  music  on  the 
iEolian  harp  in  the  window  by  shaking  its  strings.  And  when 
you  speak  or  sing,  the  sound  is  made,  as  I  have  told  you  before, 
by  the  quivering  of  two  flat  cords  in  your  throat. 

But  when  a  bell  is  struck,  how  does  the  sound  get  to  our  ears? 
The  quivering  or  vibration,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  bell  makes  a 
vibration  in  the  air,  and  this  vibration  is  continued  along  through 
the. air  to  our  ears. 

The  vibration  can  go  through  other  things  besides  the  air.  It 
will  go  through  something  solid  better  than  it  will  through  air. 
Put  your  ear  at  the  end  of  a  long  log,  and  let  some  one  scratch  with 
a  pin  on  the  other  end ;  you  can  hear  it  very  plainly.  The  vibra- 
tion made  by  the  pin  travels  through  the  whole  length  of  the 
log  to  your  ear;  but  if  you  take  away  your  ear  from  the  log  you 
cannot  hear  it,  for  the  vibration  or  sound  cannot  come  to  you  so 
far  through  the  air. 

The  nearer  you  are  to  where  the  sound  is  made,  the  louder  it 


60  HEARING. 


Dying  away  of  sound.  Speaking-tubes. 

is ;  and  the  farther  sound  goes,  the  fainter  it  is.  It  is  said  to 
die  away  as  it  goes ;  that  is,  the  vibration  becomes  less  and  less, 
till,  after  a  while,  it  is  all  lost.  It  is  like  this :  if  yon  drop  a 
stone  into  water,  it  makes  little  waves  or  ripples  in  all  directions. 
These  become  less  and  less  the  farther  they  go  from  where  the 
stone  was  dropped.  It  is  just  so  with  the  waves  or  vibrations  of 
sound  in  the  air. 

What  is  an  echo?  It  is  when  a  sound  that  you  make  comes 
back  to  you  again.  It  is  done  in  this  way.  The  vibration  strikes 
against  some  rock,  or  house,  or  something  else,  and  then  bounds 
back  to  you,  just  as  a  wave  striking  against  a  rock  bounds  back. 

Why  is  it  that  a  person  speaking  in  a  building  can  be  heard 
more  easily  than  one  speaking  in  the  open  air?  It  is  because  the 
vibrations  are  shut  in  by  the  walls.  It  is  for  the  same  reason 
that  you  can  hear  a  whisper  so  far  through  a  speaking-tube  ex- 
tending from  one  part  of  a  building  to  another.  The  vibrations 
are  shut  in  within  the  tube.  They  have  no  chance  to  spread  out 
in  all  directions,  and  they  go  right  straight  on  through  the  tube. 

I  have  thus  told  you  how  sound  is  made,  and  how  it  goes 
through  the  air  and  through  other  things;  but  how  is  it  that  we 
hear  sound  when  it  comes  to  our  ears?  How  does  the  mind 
know  anything  about  the  vibration  of  the  air?  Tin's  vibration 
does  not  go  into  the  brain,  where  the  mind  is;  it  only  goes  a 
little  way  into  the  ear,  and  there  it  stops.  It  comes  against  the 
drum  of  the  ear,  and  can  go  no  farther.  How,  then,  can  the 
mind  know  anything  about  it?     This  I  will  tell  you. 

The  vibration  of  the  air  goes  into  the  ear  to  a  membrane  fast- 


HEARING.  61 


The  bones  of  the  ear.  The  different  vibrations  in  hearing. 

ened  to  a  rim  of  bone,  and  called  the  drum,  and  shakes  it,  and 
this  skakes  a  chain  of  little  bones  that  are  at  the  other  side  of 
this  drum-head.  The  last  of  these  bones  is  fastened  to  another 
little  drum,  and,  of  course,  this  is  shaken.  This  drum  covers  an 
opening  to  some  winding  passages  in  bone.  These  passages  are 
tilled  with  a  watery  fluid.  Now  the  shaking  of  the  second  little 
drum  makes  this  fluid  shake.  The  nerve  of  hearing  feels  this 
shaking  of  the  fluid,  and  tells  the  mind  in  the  brain. 

Here  are  the  four  little  bones  that  make  the  chain  of  bones  in 

the  ear.     They  are  curiously  shaped.     The  one 

marked  a  is  called  the  hammer,  and  h  is  called  the 

anvil.     The  little  bone  marked  c  is  the  smallest 

bone  in  the  body.     That  marked  d  is  called  the 

T.""c  stirrup.     This  is  the  bone  that  is  fastened  to  the 

^~*        second  drum — the  one  that  covers  the  opening  into 

]  the  winding  passages.     The  vibration  that  comes 

to  the  first  drum  is  passed  on  by  this  chain  of  bones 

to  the  second  drum. 

See,  now,  how  many  different  shakings  there  are  for  every 
sound  that  you  hear.  First,  the  bell,  or  whatever  it  is  that 
makes  the  sound,  shakes.  Then  there  is  a  shaking  of  the  air. 
This  shakes  the  drum  of  the  ear.  Then  the  chain  of  bones  is 
shaken.  The  farthest  one  of  them  shakes  another  drum,  and 
this  shakes  the  fluid  in  the  bony  passages.  All  this  happens 
every  time  that  you  hear  a  sound  ;  and  when  you  hear  one  sound 
after  another  coming  very  quickly,  how  the  vibrations  chase 
each  other,  as  we  may  say,  as  they  go  into  the  ear!     But  they 


62 


HEARING. 


Different  sizes  of  ears  in  animals. 


Ear-trumpet 


are  not  jumbled  together.  They  do  not  overtake  one  another. 
Every  vibration  goes  by  itself,  and  so  each  sound  is  heard  dis- 
tinct from  the  others,  unless  the  vibrations  come  very  fast  in- 
deed. Then  they  make  one  continued  sound.  Each  puff  of  a 
locomotive  when  it  starts  is  heard  by  itself.  The  vibration  of 
one  puff  gets  into  the  fluid  in  the  bony  passages  before  the  one 
that  follows  it ;  but  as  the  locomotive  goes  on,  the  puffs  get 
nearer  and  nearer  together,  and  when  it  goes  very  fast,  they  are 
so  near  together  that  the  vibrations  do  not  go  separate  into  the 
ear,  and  they  make  a  continued  sound. 

Sound,  I  have  told  you,  spreads  in  all  directions  in  vibrations 

or  waves.  Now  the  more  of 
these  waves  the  ear  can  catch, 
the  more  distinct  is  the  hear- 
ing. Some  animals  that  need 
to  hear  very  well  have  very 
large  ears.  Here  is  one,  the 
long-eared  bat.  He  must  hear 
very  well  indeed,  for  his  mon- 
strous ears  must  catch  a  great 
many  of  the  waves  of  sound. 
"^-^  We  could  hear  better  if  our 

ears  were  larger;  but  large  ears  would  not  look  well  on  our 
heads;  and  we  hear  well  enough  commonly.  Sometimes,  when 
we  do  not  hear  as  distinctly  as  we  wish  to,  we  put  up  the  hand 
to  the  ear,  as  you  see  represented  on  the  opposite  page.  This 
helps  the  hearing  by  stopping  the  waves  of  sound,  and  turning 


HEARING. 


63 


Ears  of  rabbits,  deers,  etc. 


How  the  ear  is  guarded 


them  into  the  ear.  Those  who  are 
very  deaf  sometimes  have  an  ear- 
trumpet,  as  it  is  called.  In  using  it, 
the  large  trumpet  end  is  turned  tow- 
ards the  person  speaking,  so  as  to  catch 
the  vibrations,  while  the  tube  part  of 
it  is  in  the  ear. 

Some  animals  can  turn  their  ears  so 
as  to  hear  well  from  different  direc- 
tions. How  quickly  the  horse  pricks 
up  his  ears  when  he  sees  or  hears 
something  that  he  wants  to  know  more  about ;  and  then  he  can 
turn  his  ears  backward  when  he  wants  to  do  so.  It  is  in  such 
timorous  animals  as  the  hare,  the  rabbit,  and  the  deer  that  we 
see  the  ears  most  movable.  They  are  on  the  watch  all  the  time 
for  danger,  and  the  least  sound  that  they  hear  they  turn  their 
ears  in  the  direction  of  it.  Their  ears,  too,  are  large,  so  that 
they  hear  very  easily. 

I  have  told  you  how  the  eye  is  guarded.  The  ear  is  well 
guarded  also.  I  do  not  mean  its  outer  part :  it  is  the  inner  parts, 
where  the  hearing  is  really  done,  that  are  so  well  guarded.  You 
remember  that  I  told  you  that  there  are  passages  filled  with  a 
fluid.  The  nerve  of  hearing  has  its  fine,  delicate  fibres  in  these 
passages.  They  feel  the  shaking  of  the  fluid,  and  tell  the  mind 
of  it.  Now,  it  is  necessary  that  this  part  of  the  hearing  appa- 
ratus should  be  well  guarded ;  for  this  reason,  these  passages  are 
enclosed  in  the  very  hardest  bone  in  the  body. 


64  HEARING. 


How  the  ear-wax  guards  the  ear. 


Then,  too,  the  very  entrance  into  the  ear  is  well  guarded,  and 
in  a  curious  way.  The  pipe  that  leads  into  the  drum  of  the  ear 
is  always  open,  and  you  know  bugs  are  very  apt  to  crawl  into 
such  holes.  What  do  you  suppose  is  the  reason  that  they  do  not 
often  crawl  into  the  ear?  There  is  something  there  to  prevent 
them.  It  is  the  wax.  They  probably  do  not  like  the  smell  of 
it,  and  so,  if  they  come  to  the  entrance,  they  turn  about.  Once 
in  a  while  one  goes  in,  and  then  he  is  prevented  from  doing 
much  harm  by  the  wax.  He  is  soon  covered  with  this,  and  it  is 
so  sticky  that  it  keeps  him  from  kicking  very  hard.  And,  after 
all,  though  he  may  cause  some  pain,  lie  cannot  get  at  the  delicate 
part  of  the  machinery  of  the  ear.  He  dies  after  a  while,  if  he 
is  not  got  out,  and  perhaps  the  bitterness  of  the  wax  has  some- 
thing to  do  with  killing  him. 

Questions. — How  is  sound  made?  How  does  it  get  to  our  ears?  Tell  about  the 
vibration  of  sound  in  a  log.  What  is  said  about  the  dying-away  of  sound  ?  What 
is  this  like?  What  is  an  echo?  What  is  said  about  speaking  in  a  building? 
What  about  speaking  through  a  tube?  Tell  how  we  hear  sound.  Tell  about  the 
little  bones  in  the  ear.  What  do  these  bones  do  ?  Tell  what  the  different  vibrations 
are  in  hearing.  What  is  said  about  the  puffing  of  a  locomotive  ?  Why  do  some 
animals  have  large  ears?  Why  are  our  ears  so  small  ?  What  animals  can  turn  their 
ears  different  ways,  and  why  ?  How  is  the  inner  part  of  the  ear  guarded  ?  Tell 
what  is  said  about  the  wax. 


THE    SMELL,    THE   TASTE,    AND   THE   TOUCH.  65 

How  we  smell  things. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   SMELL,    THE    TASTE,    AND   THE   TOUCH. 

I  have  told  you  that  most  of  what  the  mind  knows  about  the 
world  around  it  comes  to  it  by  the  sight  and  the  hearing.  But 
it  learns  a  great  deal  by  the  other  senses,  and  these  I  will  tell 
you  about  in  this  chapter. 

Did  you  ever  think  how  it  is  that  you  smell  anything?  You 
put  a  rose  up  to  your  nose,  and  the  fragrance  is  pleasant  to  you. 
Now,  what  is  this  fragrance  %  Is  it  something  that  goes  up  into 
your  nose  %  You  cannot  see  anything  come  from  the  rose.  But 
in  reality  very  fine  particles  come  from  it.  They  are  finer  than 
the  finest  powder.  They  float  everywhere  about  in  the  air,  and, 
as  you  breathe,  they  go  with  the  air  into  your  nostrils.  Every 
perfume  that  you  smell  is  made  of  such  particles. 

But  how  do  you  think  the  mind  knows  anything  about  these 
particles  when  they  come  into  the  nose?  It  is  in  this  way.  In 
the  lining  of  the  nose  are  the  fine  ends  of  the  nerve  of  smell. 
These  ends  of  the  branches  of  this  nerve  are  so  small  that  you 
cannot  see  them.  Now,  the  fine  particles  that  I  have  told  you 
about  touch  these  ends  of  the  nerve,  and  the  nerve  tells  the  mind 
about  them ;  and  this  is  smelling. 

The  nose  is  a  more  extensive  organ  than  most  people  think  it 
is.  There  are  divisions  in  it.  These  fold  on  each  other  in  such 
a  way  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  surface  in  the  nose,  and  the 
ends  of  the  nerve  of  smell  are  all  on  this  surface. 

U 


66 

The  smell  of  some  animals.  The  enjoyment  afforded  by  the  sense  of  smell. 

Some  animals  have  a  very  sharp  smell.  In  them  the  divisions 
in  the  nose  are  very  great  in  extent,  and  so  the  nerve  spreads  over 
a  large  surface.  The  dog,  you  know,  is  able  to  track  his  master 
by  scenting  his  footsteps.  The  cat,  too,  has  a  very  quick  smell 
for  rats  and  mice. 

Some  persons  have  a  sharp  smell  for  some  things.  I  have 
heard  of  a  blind  gentleman  who  could  always  tell  when  there 
was  a  cat  anywhere  near  him  by  his  sense  of  smell.  Once  he 
was  very  sure  that  there  was  one  near  by,  though  no  one  could 
see  her;  he  insisted  upon  it  that  he  was  right,  and  after  a  while 
pussy  was  found  in  a  closet  of  the  room. 

The  sense  of  smell  affords  us  great  enjoyment.  The  Creator 
has,  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying  us,  scattered  sweet-smelling 
flowers  all  over  the  earth.  These  are  all  perfume  factories,  as  I 
told  you  in  Part  First,  made  by  him  to  give  us  pleasure.  He 
could  have  made  the  flowers  and  fruits  in  such  a  way  that  they 
would  have  no  smell ;  but,  in  his  desire  to  please  us  and  make 
us  happy,  he  has  given  to  them  a  great  variety  of  pleasant  odors. 
There  are,  it  is  true,  some  unpleasant  smells  in  the  world,  but 
these  are  not  anything  like  as  common  as  the  pleasant  ones ;  and 
many  of  them  are  manifestly  very  useful  in  warning  us  of  danger. 

The  sense  of  taste  is  another  source  of  gratification  to  us.  The 
nerve  of  this  sense  has  its  fine  ends  mostly  in  the  tongue.  What 
we  take  into  the  mouth  touches  these  ends  of  the  nerve,  and  the 
nerve  tells  the  mind  about  it ;  and  this  is  tasting. 

Besides  the  pleasure  which  we  have  from  the  taste,  the  great 
use  of  this  sense  is  to  <ruide  us  in  the  choice  of  food.     Animals 


THE    SMELL,    THE   TASTE,    AND   THE   TOUCH.  67 

How  we  taste  and  how  we  feel.  The  nerves  of  touch  in  the  skin. 

choose  the  kinds  of  food  that  are  proper  for  them,  and  they  do 
it  by  their  taste.  They  very  seldom  make  a  mistake  in  this. 
The  sense  of  taste,  like  that  of  smell,  sometimes  warns  us  of 
danger.  If  our  food  tastes  bad,  we  know  that  there  is  something 
wrong  about  it,  and  do  not  eat  it,  and  so,  perhaps,  avoid  being 
made  sick. 

The  sense  of  touch  gives  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  to  the 
mind.  This  sense  has  a  large  number  of  nerves  in  all  parts  of 
the  body,  and  they  are  making  reports  continually  to  the  mind. 
Especially  busy  in  this  way  are  the  nerves  of  the  tips  of  the 
fingers.  It^  is  by  the  fine  ends  of  these  nerves  that  the  mind 
finds  out  how  different  things  feel.  It  finds  out  whether  they 
are  soft  or  hard,  smooth  or  rough,  etc. 

These  nerves  in  the  tips  of  the  fingers  are  of  great  service  to 
the  mind  in  guiding  it  in  using  the  muscles.  In  playing  with 
the  fingers  on  an  instrument,  the  feeling  in  the  ends  of  them  is 
a  guide  to  the  mind  in  working  them.  So  it  is  with  anything 
that  we  do  with  them.  You  could  not  do  some  of  the  simplest 
things  if  there  was  no  feeling  in  your  fingers.  You  could  not 
even  button  and  unbutton  your  coat.  I  shall  have  more  to  say 
about  this  when  I  tell  you  particularly  about  the  hand. 

The  nerves  of  touch  are  not  placed  on  the  surface  of  the  skin. 
We  have  really  two  skins,  an  outer  and  an  inner  one.  The 
nerves  are  in  the  inner  skin,  and  are  covered  by  the  outer  skin. 
This  outer  skin  is  very  thin  except  on  the  sole  of  the  foot  and 
the  palm  of  the  hand;  from  its  thinness  it  is  called  the  scarf- 
skin.     It  is  this  which  is  raised  when  a  blister  is  drawn  ;  and 


C8  THE  SMELL,  THE  TASTE,  AND  THE  TOUCH. 

The  scarf-skin.  Nerves  of  touch  in  long-tailed  animals. 

perhaps  you  know  that  it  does  not  hurt  to  prick  this  when  we 
want  to  let  the  water  out;  but  if  the  needle  touches  the  inner 
skin,  where  the  nerves  are,  you  feel  it  very  quickly. 

Now,  when  you  touch  anything,  the  nerves  in  the  inner  skin 
feel  it  through  this  scarf-skin.  This  is  so  thin  and  soft  that  the 
nerves  can  feel  through  it ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  a  good 
protection  to  them.  If  it  were  not  for  this,  the  nerves  would  be 
affected  too  much  by  the  rubbing  of  things  against  them.  They 
could  not  even  bear  the  air.  If  you  had  no  scarf-skin  you  would 
be  in  great  distress  all  the  time.  You  know  how  much  pain  you 
suffer  if  you  rub  off  the  skin,  as  it  is  called,  anywhere.  It  is  the 
scarf-skin  only  that  is  rubbed  off,  and  this  exposes  to  the  air  the 
fine  ends  of  the  nerves  in  the  inner  skin. 

The  ends  of  the  nerves  of  touch  are  in  rows  on  the  tips  of  the 
fingers. 

Animals  that  have  long  tails,  which  they  use  to  climb  by,  as 
the  spider-monkey  (see  page  108),  have  the  end  on  the  under 
surface  bare.  This  portion  is  very  sensitive,  and  is  designed  by 
nature  to  allow  the  creature  to  use  it  as  a  fifth  hand.  The 
prehensile-tailed  monkeys  are  known  to  take  eggs  out  of  deep- 
seated  nests  in  trees  by  the  use  of  their  clasping  tails. 

The  opossum,  which  lives  in  the  Middle  States,  can  clasp 
the  boughs  of  trees  with  its  tail,  and  can  hang  its  heavy  body 
thereby. 

There  are  no  animals  that  have  such  perfect  instruments  of 
touch  as  our  fingers  are  to  us.  Animals  that  have  hoofs,  as  the 
horse  and  the  cow,  cannot  feel  much  with  their  fore-feet.     They 


THE  SMELL,  THE  TASTE,  AND  THE  TOUCH. 


69 


Whiskers  of  the  cat. 


Feelers  of  insects. 


have  their  sense  of  touch  mostly  in  their  lips  and  tongues.  The 
elephant  has  this  sense  chiefly  in  the  finger-shaped  thing  at  the 
end  of  his  trunk.  There  is  not  much  feeling  in  the  paws  of  dogs, 
cats,  etc.  The  whiskers  of  the  cat  are  feelers.  There  are  nerves 
at  the  root  of  each  of  those  long  hairs,  so  that  when  anything 
touches  the  whiskers  the  cat's  mind  knows  it  at  once. 

Insects  have  feelers  extending  out  from  their  heads.  Some- 
times they  are  very  long,  as  you 
see  in  this  insect,  called  the  ich- 
neumon fly.  We  see  insects,  as 
they  are  going  about,  touch  things 
with  these  feelers  as  we  do  with 
our  hands.  Bees  can  work  in  the 
dark,  in  their  hives,  guided  by 
their  feelers ;  indeed,  the  bee  will 
not  work  at  all  if  his  feelers  are  cut  off:  he  does  not  seem  to 
know  what  to  do  with  himself.  Insects  sometimes  appear  to 
tell  each  other  things  by  their  feelers.  In  every  hive  of  bees 
there  is  a  queen.  If  she  dies,  those  that  know  about  it  go 
around  very  quickly,  telling  the  other  bees  by  striking  their 
feelers  with  their  own ;  and  those  that  are  told  tell  others,  and 
thus  the  sad  event  is  soon  known  all  over  the  hive. 


Questions. — By  which  senses  does  the  mind  get  most  of  its  knowledge?  What 
is  fragrance?  How  does  the  mind  know  anything  about  it?  What  is  said  of  the 
extent  of  the  organ  of  smell  ?  What  is  said  of  the  smell  of  some  animals  ?  Of  the 
acute  smell  of  some  persons  ?  What  is  said  of  the  enjoyment  afforded  by  the  sense 
of  smell?  What  is  said  of  the  sense  of  taste?  What  are  its  uses  ?  Where  is  the 
sense  of  touch?     Where  is  it  especially  active?     What  do  the  nerves  of  touch  in  the 


70  THE    SMELL,  THE   TASTE,  AND   THE   TOUCH. 


Questions 


fingers  tell  the  mind?  In  what  way  do  they  help  us  in  using  the  muscles  ?  Tell 
.about  the  two  skins  of  our  bodies.  Why  is  the  outer  skin  needed?  Of  what  use 
are  the  long,  bare,  tipped  tails  of  spider-monkeys?  What  is  said  of  the  under  side  of 
the  extremity  of  the  tail  ?  What  remarkable  feat  do  the  spider-monkeys  perform 
with  their  tails  ?  What  other  animal  has  a  prehensile  tail  ?  What  is  said  of  touch 
in  animals  that  have  hoofs?  What  are  the  whiskers  of  the  cat  for?  WThat  is  said 
of  the  feelers  of  insects?    What  is  told  about  the  bees? 


THE   BONES.  71 


How  the  mind  uses  what  it  learns. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE   BONES. 

I  have  told  you,  in  the  last  few  chapters,  how  it  is  that  the 
mind  learns  about  the  world  around  it  by  the  senses.  But  the 
mind  does  something  besides  learn.  It  tells  others  about  what 
it  learns.  It  does  this  by  the  muscles  in  various  ways.  When 
you  tell  anything  by  speaking,  it  is  the  muscles  of  the  throat, 
and  mouth,  and  chest  that  do  it.  When  you  write,  the  muscles 
of  your  hand  are  telling  what  the  mind  directs  them  to  tell. 
When  your  face  expresses  your  thoughts  and  feelings,  it  is  the 
muscles  of  the  face  that  tell  what  the  mind  thinks  and  feels. 

The  mind  not  only  tells  things,  but  it  does  things  also,  and  it 
does  them  by  the  muscles.  You  see  a  man  busily  at  work  mak- 
ing something:  his  muscles  are  doing  the  work.  The  mind  is 
directing  them  how  to  do  it  by  the  nerves  that  spread  to  them 
from  the  brain.  How  does  his  mind  know  in  what  way  to  di- 
rect them  ?  It  is  by  knowledge  gained  through  the  senses — by 
his  eyes  and  ears.  He  has  seen  people  do  the  same  kind  of 
work,  and  they  have  told  him  about  it.  His  mind  uses  with  the 
muscles  what  it  has  learned  by  the  senses. 

You  see,  then,  that  the  mind  makes  use  of  what  it  learns  by 
the  senses  in  two  ways :  it  tells  about  it,  and  it  uses  it  in  doing 
things ;  and  in  both  telling  and  doing  it  uses  the  muscles.  Our 
knowledge,  then,  goes  into  the  mind  by  the  senses — they  are  its 


72  THE   BONES. 


The  joints  of  the  bones.  The  oiling  of  them. 

inlets ;  but  it  comes  out  by  the  muscles — they  are  its  outlets. 
If  a  mind  were  in  a  body  that  had  the  senses,  but  had  no  mus- 
cles, it  might  know  a  great  deal,  but  it  could  never  let  anybody 
know  what  it  knew,  and  it  could  not  do  anything. 

The  chief  things  that  are  moved  in  the  body  by  the  muscles 
are  the  bones,  and  I  shall  tell  you  about  these  before  I  tell  you 
about  the  muscles. 

When  you  bend  your  arm,  the  muscles  make  the  bones  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  arm  bend  on  the  bone  in  the  upper  part. 
There  is  a  joint  at  the  elbow  for  this  purpose;  and  there  are 
joints  in  many  other  parts  of  the  body,  so  that  the  muscles  can 
move  one  bone  upon  another. 

These  joints  of  the  bones  are  so  contrived  that  they  do  not 
wear  out.  They  work  nicely  through  a  long  life.  Now  it  would 
be  very  strange  if  a  joint  in  a  machine  should  work  all  the  time 
for  seventy  or  eighty  years,  and  still  be  almost  as  good  as  new. 
No  man  ever  made  such  a  joint. 

You  know  that  men  keep  oiling  the  joints  in  machinery.  If 
they  did  not,  the  joints  would  soon  wear  out.  When  the  cars 
stop  at  a  station,  you  see  men  with  tin  vessels  oiling  the  boxes 
of  the  wheels  of  the  locomotive  and  the  cars,  and  other  parts  that 
rub  on  each  other.  The  joints  of  our  bones  need  no  such  care 
from  us.  We  never  need  to  oil  them  as  men  oil  machinery. 
They  are  very  nicely  made.  The  ends  of  the  bones  are  tipped 
with  a  very  smooth  substance,  and  this  is  always  kept  in  good 
order;  and  then,  too,  the  joints  always  keep  themselves  oiled. 
How  this  is  done  I  explain  in  a  book  for  older  scholars. 


THE   BONES. 


73 


Bones  of  the  head. 


Bones  of  the  chest. 


The  bones  are  the  framework  of  the  body.  They  are  to  the 
body  what  whalebones  are  to  an  umbrella,  what  timbers  are  to 
a  house,  or  what  the  ribs  of  leaves  are,  as  I  told  yon  in  Part  First, 
to  the  leaves.  The  bones  make  the  body  firm.  Yon  could  not 
stand  up  if  you  had  no  bones ;  you  would  have  to  crawl  like  the 
worm.  See  one  bracing  himself  to  pull  or  push.  The  bones 
are  all  pressed  tightly  against  each  other  by  the  strong  muscles. 

The  bones  of  the  body  have  very  different  shapes  and  sizes. 
Let  us  look  at  some  of  them. 

The  bones  of  the  head,  represented  here, 
make  a  roundish  box.  This  is  to  hold  the  brain. 
Here  the  mind,  the  governor  of  all  the  machi- 
nery of  the  body,  resides.  Great  care  is  there- 
fore taken  to  guard  well  this  upper  room  of  the 
body.     Its  bony  walls  are  made  very  strong. 

Look  at  this  barrel  -  shaped  set  of 
bones  that  make  the  chest.  The  ribs 
go  round  it  as  hoops  do  round  a  barrel. 
They  are  joined  to  the  back-bone  be- 
hind and  to  the  breast-bone  in  front. 
They  are  joined  to  the  back-bone  in 
such  a  way  that  they  move  up  and 
down  as  you  breathe.  You  can  feel 
them  move  upward  if  you  put  your 
hand  on  your  chest  as  you  take  a  full 
breath.  Inside  of  this  barrel -shaped 
set  of  bones  are  the  heart  and  lungs. 


74  THE   BONES. 


Back-bone.  Bowing.  Position  of  the  head. 

The  back-bone,  as  we  call  it,  is  not  one  bone;  it  is  a  chain  or 
pile  of  twenty-four  bones  placed  one  above  another.  You  can 
see  a  part  of  this  pile  or  column,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  in  the 
figure  of  the  bones  of  the  chest.  If  it  were  all  one  bone,  you 
could  not  twist  your  body  about  as  you  do.  And  in  making  a 
bow,  you  could  not  bend  your  back.  You  could  only  bend  your 
head  forward  on  the  top  of  the  back-bone,  and  bend  your  body 
forward  on  your  lower  limbs.  A  very  awkward  bow  that  would 
be.  As  it  is,  whenever  you  make  a  bow,  there  is  a  little  motion 
between  each  two  of  the  whole  twenty -four  bones,  and  this 
makes  the  bow  easy  and  graceful.  Persons  that  bow  stiffly  do 
not  have  enough  of  this  movement  in  the  column  of  bones,  but 
move  it  altogether,  very  much  as  if  it  were  all  one  bone. 

The  head  rests  on  the  top  of  this  column  of  bones.  When 
you  move  your  head  backward  and  forward,  it  rocks  on  the  top- 
most bone  of  this  column.  There  are  two  little  smooth  places 
hollowed  out  on  this  bone  for  it  to  rock  on,  and  the  head  has 
two  smooth  rockers  that  fit  into  these  places. 

Questions. — In  -what  two  ways  does  the  mind  use  what  it  leavns?  With  what 
does  it  do  this  ?  What  are  the  inlets  of  the  mind's  knowledge  ?  What  are  its  out- 
lets? What  move  the  bones  on  each  other?  What  is  said  about  the  wearing  of 
the  joints  ?  What  is  said  about  their  being  kept  oiled  ?  What  are  the  bones  to  the 
body  ?  What  is  said  about  the  bones  of  the  head  ?  What  of  the  bones  of  the  chest  ? 
To  what  are  the  ribs  fastened  behind?  To  what  in  front?  How  many  bones  are 
there  in  what  is  called  the  back-bone?  Why  are  there  so  many?  What  does  the 
head  rest  on  ?     What  is  said  about  the  motion  of  the  head  ? 


MORE    ABOUT   THE    BONES. 


75 


Boues  of  the  arm  and  hand. 


Shoulder  joint  and  elbow  joint. 


CHAPTER   XY. 


MORE    ABOUT   THE    BONES. 


Here  are  the  bones  of  the  arm  and  the  hand.  The  head  of 
the  arm  bone  that  goes  into 
the  socket  at  the  shoulder  is, 
as  you  see,  a  smooth  round 
ball.  It  fits  into  a  sort  of 
cup.  The  joint  here  is  what 
we  call  a  ball-and-socket 
joint.  The  ball  turns  in  the 
socket  very  easily  in  mak- 
ing any  whirling  motion 
with  your  arm,  as  you  do 
when  you  jump  the  rope. 

The  joint  at  the  elbow  is 
of  a  different  kind:  it  is 
what  we  call  a  hinge  joint. 
You  cannot  make  any  whirl- 
ing motion  at  your  elbow  as 
you  can  at  the  shoulder; 
the  motion  is  all  one  way, 
like  a  hinge.  The  chief 
motion  at  the  wrist  also  is  a  hinge  motion,  as  you  can  see  by 
working  your  hand  back  and  forth.     There  are  two  bones,  you 


76 


MORE    ABOUT   THE    BONES. 


Bones  of  the  leg  and  foot. 


notice,  in  the  arm  below  the  elbow:  these  roll 
on  each  other  in  such  a  way  that  you  can  turn 
the  palm  of  your  hand  in  different  directions. 

There  are  a  great  many  little  bones  in  the  body 
of  the  hand  and  in  the  fingers.  There  is  a  very 
great  variety  in  their  motions,  so  that  the  hand 
can  do  almost  anything  that  you  want  it  to  do. 
I  shall  have  something  more  to  tell  you  about 
this  when  you  come  to  the  chapter  on  the  hand. 

You  have  here  the  bones  of  the  leg  and  foot. 
You  see  only  the  lower  end  of  the  stout  thigh 
bone,  and  the  knee  joint :  it  makes  a  hinge  joint 
with  the  large  bone  of  the  leg.  The  motion  of 
this  is  only  one  way,  backward  and  forward,  as 
you  see  in  walking.  The  small,  thick  bone, 
called  the  knee-pan,  is  left  out  in  the  figure. 
One  of  the  uses  of  this  bone  is  to  be  a  shield  to 
the  joint.  If  you  fall  down,  in  running,  you  are 
apt  to  come  upon  the  knee,  and  this  shield  keeps 
the  joint  from  being  hurt. 

You  see  that  long,  very  slender  bone  at  the 
side  of  the  large  one :  one  would  suppose  that 
this  would  be  very  easily  broken,  but  it  is  not, 
because  it  is  so  well  covered  up  with  muscles. 
Its  lower  end  is  quite  thick  and  strong,  and 
makes  the  outer  part  of  an  ankle.  The  ankle 
joint  is  a  hinge  joint  like  that  of  the  knee. 


MOKE    ABOUT   THE   BONES. 


77 


Why  there  are  so  many  bones  in  the  foot. 


Skeleton  of  the  bat. 


There  are  as  many  bones  in  the  foot  as  there  are  in  the  hand. 
Why  is  this?  You  remember  that  I  told  you  that  the  hand  had 
so  many  bones  because  it  had  to  perform  so  many  different  mo- 
tions. But  it  is  not  so  with  the  foot ;  it  does  not  have  much 
variety  of  motion.  There  is  some  other  reason,  then,  for  its 
having  so  many  bones.  It  is  this.  If  the  bones  of  the  foot 
were  all  in  one,  the  foot  would  be  a  very  stiff  and  clumsy  thing; 
it  would  not  be  springy  as  it  is  now.  You  would  make  awk- 
ward work  in  walking  and  running  with  such  feet. 

The  bones  of  different  animals  are  made  differently,  according 
to  the  work  which  they  do. 
Those  that  do  heavy  work 
have  heavy,  stout  skeletons ; 
but  those  that  have  only  light 
work  to  do  have  their  bones 
slender.  A  bird  has  a  light 
skeleton,  for  it  could  not  fly 
so  well  with  a  heavy  one. 
Here  is  the  skeleton  of  a  bat. 
The  bones  are  exceedingly 
light  and  slender,  for  it  is 
light  and  nimble  work  that 
he  does  in  flying. 

The  bones  in  an  old  person 
are  more  brittle  than  those  in 
a  child.  If  the  child's  bones 
were  brittle  they  would  be  very  often  broken,  because  he  so  oft- 


78  MORE    ABOUT   TIIE   BONES. 

The  bones  of  a  child's  head.  Why  we  have  two  sets  of  teeth. 

en  tumbles  down.  If  old  persons  were  as  careless  as  children 
are,  there  would  be  broken  limbs  to  be  taken  care  of  in  almost 
every  house.  They  would  not  get  off  with  a  short  crying-spell 
and  a  bruise,  as  children  commonly  do  when  they  have  a  fall. 

There  is  one  contrivance  in  the  child's  head  that  prevents  the 
bones  from  breaking  in  its  frequent  falls.  In  the  grown  person 
the  bones  of  the  head  are  fastened  tightly  together,  and  are  al- 
most like  one  bone.  But  it  is  not  so  with  the  child.  In  an  in- 
fant's head  they  are  very  loose,  and  yon  can  feel  quite  a  space 
between  the  bones  at  the  top  of  his  forehead.  Now,  when  the 
child  falls  and  hits  his  head,  the  loose  bones  give  and  do  not 
break. 

Though  the  teeth  are  like  the  bones,  they  are  different  from 
them  in  one  thing.  The  bones  grow  with  the  rest  of  the  body, 
but  the  teeth  never  grow  any  larger  after  they  first  push  up 
through  the  gum.  Look  at  the  reason  of  this.  The  outside 
of  the  tooth — the  enamel,  as  it  is  called — is  made  very  hard. 
It  needs  to  be  so,  that  the  tooth  may  do  its  work  well.  Such  a 
hard  substance,  when  once  made,  is  finished.  It  never  can 
grow.  No  blood  can  get  into  it  to  make  it  grow,  as  it  can  into 
the  bones. 

And  now  you  see  the  reason  that  every  person  has  two  sets  of 
teeth.  If  the  teeth  that  one  has  when  a  child  should  remain  in 
his  head,  they  would  be  too  small  for  him  when  he  became  an 
adult ;  and  as  the  jaws  grew  they  would  become  quite  far  apart, 
and  so  would  look  very  strange.  To  get  rid  of  these  difficulties, 
the  first  set  begin  to  be  shed  about  the  seventh  year,  and  a  new 


MORE   ABOUT   THE   BONES.  79 

Skeletons  of  crabs  and  lobsters.  How  they  are  shed  every  year. 

set  of  larger  teeth  take  their  places.  As  the  new  teeth  are  not 
only  larger,  but  are  more  in  number,  they  fill  up  all  the  room 
designed  for  them  in  the  enlarged  jaws. 

All  the  bones  of  our  bodies  are  inside,  and  are  covered  with 
muscles,  cords,  and  ligaments ;  and  over  all  is  the  skin.  But  the 
bones  of  some  animals  are  outside.  This  is  the  case  with  crabs 
and  lobsters.  Their  bones  make  a  sort  of  coat-of-mail  to  defend 
the  soft  parts  from  being  injured.  The  hard  coats  of  many  in- 
sects also  may  be  considered  as  their  skeletons. 

Such  animals  as  crabs  and  lobsters  have  new  skeletons  every 
year.  The  old  skeletons  are  too  small  for  their  growing  bodies, 
and  so  they  must  be  cast  off.  The  animal  crawls  into  a  retired 
place  to  go  through  the  operation.  He  makes  a  great  effort,  and 
the  shell  comes  apart.  He  then,  by  hard  struggling,  pulls  him- 
self out.  He  now  keeps  still  a  few  days  in  his  retirement,  and 
another  case  or  skeleton,  as  hard  as  the  old  one,  is  formed. 
When  he  comes  out  with  his  new  armor  on,  he  is  as  brave  and 
as  ready  to  fight  as  ever. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  shoulder  joint  ?  The  elbow  joint  ?  The  wrist  ? 
How  is  it  that  you  can  turn  the  palm  of  the  hand  one  way  and  another?  Why  are 
there  so  many  little  bones  in  the  hand?  What  is  said  about  the  knee  joint?  What 
is  one  of  the  uses  of  the  knee-pan  ?  What  is  said  about  the  slender  bone  in  the  leg? 
What  about  the  ankle  joint  ?  Why  are  there  so  many  bones  in  the  foot  ?  What  is 
said  of  the  difference  in  brittleness  between  the  bones  of  the  old  and  of  the  young? 
What  is  said  about  the  bones  in  a  child's  head  ?  How  are  the  teeth  unlike  the  bones  ? 
Why  do  we  have  two  sets  of  teeth  ?  What  is  said  about  the  bones  of  some  animals  ? 
What  is  related  of  crabs  and  lobsters  ? 


80 


THE   MUSCLES. 


How  the  muscles  act. 


The  muscles  that  bend  and  straighten  the  arm. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


THE   MUSCLES. 

I  have  already  told  you  some  things  about  the  muscles.  There 
is  no  motion  in  the  body  that  is  not  made  by  them.  They  move 
the  bones,  and  they  move  other  parts  also,  as  the  tongue,  the  cor- 
ners of  the  mouth,  the  eyes,  the  eyelids,  etc. 

But  you  will  want  to  know  how  they  do  this.  Stretch  a  strip 
of  India-rubber  with  your  hands.  Now  let  it  go,  and  it  will 
shorten  itself.  When  a  muscle  pulls  a  bone,  it  shortens  itself 
just  as  this  strip  of  India-rubber  does.  But  the  cause  of  its 
shortening  itself  is  different.  The  mind  makes  the  muscle 
shorten.  You  think  to  bend  your  arm  ;  and,  as  quick  as  thought, 
something  goes  by  nerves  to  the  muscle  that  can  do  this,  and  it 
shortens  itself  and  bends  the  arm. 

Here  is  a  figure  that  shows  the  muscle  that  bends  the  arm,  and 

also  the  muscle  that 
straightens  it  out.  All 
the  other  muscles  of  the 
arm  are  left  out,  so  that 
you  may  see  just  how 
these  operate.  Look  at 
the  muscle  marked  a: 
you  can  see  that  when 
this   shortens   itself  it 


THE   MUSCLES. 


81 


Color  of  muscles  in  different  animals. 


Muscles  that  move  the  fingers. 


must  pull  up  the  forearm — that  is,  that  part  of  the  arm  which  is 
below  the  elbow.  The  muscle  h  has  a  contrary  effect.  The  end 
of  this  muscle  is  fastened  to  the  point  of  the  elbow,  and  when  it 
shortens  it  pulls  the  forearm  down  and  straightens  the  arm. 

When  a  muscle  shortens  itself,  it  swells  out  and  becomes 
hard.  Straighten  your  arm,  and  then  take  hold  of  it  with  your 
other  hand  a  little  above  the  elbow ;  now  bend  up  your  arm  as 
forcibly  as  you  can,  and  you  will  feel  the  muscle  on  the  front  of 
the  arm  swell  out  and  harden  as  you  hold  your  hand  upon  it. 

The  muscles  are  the  fleshy  part  of  the  body.  The  meat  of 
animals  is  made  up  of  muscles.  They  are  not  of  the  same  color 
in  all  animals.  In  some  they  are  quite  red,  while  in  others  they 
are  of  a  light  color.  Beef — the  meat  of  the  ox  or  the  cow — is, 
you  know,  a  deep  red,  and  is  very  different  from  the  meat  of  a 
fowl.     The  muscles  of  fishes  are  generally  very  light  in  color. 

Your  arm  below  the  elbow  is  very  fleshy.  Most  of  the  mus- 
cles that  move  the  fingers,  as  well  as  those  that  move  the  hand, 
are  there.  Take  hold  of  that  part  of  the  arm  with  your  other 
hand  while  you  work  the  fingers  back  and  forth,  and  you  will 
feel  the  muscles  as  they  shorten  themselves  to  pull  the  fingers. 
Here  is  a  figure  showing  the  muscles  in  this  fleshy  part  of  the 


THE    MUSCLES. 


Muscles  in  the  hand.  The  round  fulness  of  the  arm.  Drum-stick  of  the  fowl. 

arm.  You  see  that  they  are  quite  large.  The  wrist  is  very  slen- 
der. There  are  no  muscles  there;  there  are  bright,  shining, 
smooth  cords  there,  that  run  from  the  muscles  to  the  fingers. 
The  muscles  pull  the  fingers  by  these  cords  just  as  men  pull  any 
thing  by  ropes.  You  can  see  the  play  of  these  cords  very  plainly 
on  the  back  of  the  hand  of  a  thin  person  as  the  fingers  are 
worked. 

There  are  only  some  very  small  muscles  in  the  hand,  as  those 
that  spread  the  fingers  out,  and  those  that  bring  them  together 
again.  If  you  work  your  fingers  in  this  way,  you  will  see  that 
the  muscles,  which  do  such  light  work,  need  not  be  large  and 
strong.  The  muscles  that  do  the  hard  work  of  the  hand  are  up 
in  the  arm.  They  are  very  large.  If  the}'  were  not,  you  could 
not  grasp  things  so  tightly,  and  pull  so  hard  as  yon  sometimes 
do.  ^ 

Now  see  why  it  is  that  these  large  muscles  are  put  so  far  away 
from  where  they  do  their  work.  If  they  were  put  in  the  hand, 
they  would  make  it  a  large  and  clumsy  thing.  They  are  there- 
fore put  up  in  the  arm,  where  there  is  room  for  them,  and  they 
have  small,  but  very  strong  cords  by  which  they  pull  the  fingers. 
They  give  to  the  arm  that  round  fullness  that  makes  its  shape  so 
beautiful. 

You  can  see  the  same  kind  of  arrangement  in  the  drum-stick, 
as  it  is  called,  of  the  fowl.  The  large  muscles  that  work  the 
claws  are  up  in  the  full,  round  part  of  the  leg,  and  there  are 
small,  stout  cords  that  extend  from  them  down  to  the  claws. 
Children  often  amuse  themselves  with  pulling  these  cords  in  the 


THE   MUSCLES.  83 


Muscles  of  the  toes.  Ligaments  of  the  wrist  and  the  ankle. 

drum-stick  of  a  fowl,  making  the  claws  move  just  as  they  are 
moved  by  the  muscles  of  the  animal  when  he  is  alive. 

It  is  with  the  muscles  that  move  the  toes  as  it  is  with  those 
that  move  the  fingers.  They  are  put  mostly  up  in  the  leg,  and 
their  slender  tendons,  by  which  the}7  pull,  go  down  over  the  ankle 
to  the  toes,  just  as  in  the  arm  the  tendons  go  over  the  wrist  to 
the  fingers.  If  the  muscles  of  the  toes  were  all  put  in  the  foot, 
they  would  make  it  very  clumsy,  and  at  the  same  time  the  leg 
would  be  ugly  from  the  want  of  that  fulness  which  it  now  has. 

Both  at  the  wrist  and  the  ankle  the  tendons  are  bound  down 
very  tightly.  If  this  were  not  so  they  would  be  always  flying 
out  of  place,  stretching  out  the  skin  before  them  in  ridges.  This 
would  be  the  case  especially  with  the  tendons  that  go  to  the  toes. 
Every  time  that  the  muscles  pulled  on  them,  they  would  start 
out  very  much  at  the  bend  of  the  ankle  if  they  were  not  firmly 
held  by  the  ligaments. 

The  muscles  are  of  many  shapes — round,  flat,  long,  short,  etc. 
They  are  shaped  to  suit  the  work  which  they  are  to  do. 

They  vary  much  in  size  also.  Some  are  very  large,  and  some 
are  exceedingly  small.  How  large  are  the  muscles  of  the  arm 
that  wield  the  hammer  and  the  axe !  But  how  small  are  the 
muscles  that  work  the  musical  cords  in  your  throat  when  you 
speak  or  sing  !  These  little  muscles  make  all  the  different  notes 
of  the  voice  by  pulling  on  these  cords,  and  in  doing  this  many 
of  their  motions  are  exceedingly  slight. 

You  remember  that  in  the  chapter  on  the  hearing  I  told  you 
about  the  little  bones  in  the  ear.     These  have  some  very  little 


84  THE   MUSCLES. 


Muscles  in  the  ear.  Large  and  small  muscles  in  birds. 

muscles  which  move  them.     The  bones  and  the  muscles,  a  and 
b,  are  represented  in  the  following  figure.    The  muscles,  you  see, 

have  tendons  or  cords  to  pull  by,  in  the 
same  way  that  the  muscles  in  the  arm 
have.  Both  the  bones  and  the  muscles 
are  larger  in  this  figure  than  they  are 
in  the  body.  As  the  bones  are  the 
smallest  ones  that  wo  have,  so  it  is  with 
the  muscles.  T'ery  small  machinery  is 
l  this  part  of  the  hearing  machinery. 
The  birds  that  go  swiftly  on  their  wings  have  very  large  mus- 
cles to  work  them.  This  gives  them  the  full,  round  breast 
which  you  see  that  they  have.  But  the  muscles  that  work  the 
musical  cords  in  their  little  throats,  as  they  sing  so  sweetly,  are 
so  small  that  it  is  difficult  to  find  them. 

Questiojis. — By  what  is  all  motion  in  the  body  made?  What  do  the  muscles 
move  ?  Explain  how  the  muscles  move  things.  Tell  about  the  two  muscles  of  the 
arm  in  the  figure.  What  is  said  about  the  swelling-out  of  the  muscles  as  they 
shorten  ?  What  is  the  meat  of  animals  ?  What  is  said  about  the  color  of  muscles  in 
different  animals?  What  is  said  of  the  muscles  in  the  arm  below  the  elbow?  What 
is  said  of  the  wrist  ?  What  of  the  muscles  in  the  hand  ?  Why  are  most  of  the  mus- 
cles that  move  the  fingers  put  up  in  the  arm  ?  WThat  is  said  about  the  drum-stick  of 
a  fowl  ?  What  is  said  about  the  muscles  of  the  toes  ?  What  about  the  ligaments  of 
the  tendons  at  the  wrist  and  ankle  ?  What  is  said  of  the  shapes  of  muscles  ?  What 
of  their  sizes  ?  What  are  the  smallest  muscles  in  the  body  ?  Wrhat  is  said  about  the 
muscles  of  birds  used  in  flying  and  those  used  in  singing? 


MORE  ABOUT  THE  MUSCLES.  85 

Number  of  muscles  in  the  body.  All  connected  with  the  brain  by  nerves. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

MORE   ABOUT    THE    MUSCLES. 

There  is  a  great  number  of  muscles  in  the  whole  body  to  pro- 
duce all  its  motions.  There  are  about  fifty  in  each  arm  and  hand. 
In  the  whole  body  there  are  about  four  hundred  and  fifty,  and 
each  muscle  is  made  up  of  a  great  number  of  fibres  or  threads, 
every  fibre  having  its  own  work  to  do. 

Now  all  these  muscles  have  nerves  that  connect  them  with  the 
brain,  and  the  mind  tells  them  by  these  nerves  just  what  to  do. 
Each  muscle  has  a  great  many  little  nervous  ends  scattered 
through  it  everywhere.  The  message  from  the  mind  that  tells 
the  muscle  to  act  does  not  go  to  the  whole  muscle  as  one  thing, 
as  a  message  is  sent  to  a  person.  It  goes  to  each  fibre  of  it,  tell- 
ing that  fibre  what  to  do.  Every  fibre  of  the  muscle  has  its  lit- 
tle nervous  tube  connecting  it  with  the  brain,  for  the  nerves  are 
bundles  of  tubes,  just  as  the  muscles  are  bundles  of  fibres.  And 
each  fibre  gets  its  messages  from  the  mind  separate  from  all  the 
other  fibres  by  its  own  tube,  so  that  each  fibre  is  a  workman  by 
itself.  How  well  these  workmen  pull  together  when  they  all 
get  a  message  from  your  mind  by  their  telegraphic  tubes ! 

Commonly  it  takes  several  muscles  to  make  any  motion,  and 
sometimes  many  muscles  act  together.  When  this  is  so,  mes- 
sages are  sent  to  a  great  multitude  of  fibres  in  these  many  mus- 
cles.    Think  of  this.     Raise  your  hand.     It  is  not  one  muscle 


MORE    ABOUT   THE    MUSCLES. 


The  endless  variety  of  messages  sent  from  the  brain  to  the  muscles. 

that  does  this,  bat  many.  Your  mind  has  sent  a  message  to  all 
the  fibres  of  these  muscles,  and  they  have  all  done  their  part  in 
raising  your  hand.  But  now  raise  it  again  a  little  differently. 
A  different  message  for  this  has  been  sent  to  all  the  fibres;  and 
so  for  all  the  different  motions  there  are  different  messages.  It 
does  not  seem  possible  that  so  many  different  messages  should 
be  sent  through  the  nerves  to  the  fibres  of  all  the  muscles,  and 
that  these  fibres  should  obey  them  so  perfectly. 

This  is  wonderful  even  in  so  simple  a  motion  as  raising  the 
hand ;  but  how  much  more  wonderful  when  a  great  variety  of 
rapid  motions  are  made  by  the  muscles,  as  in  playing  on  a  piano  ! 
How  busy  is  the  mind  of  the  player  in  sending  its  messages,  one 
after  the  other,  to  the  multitudes  of  muscular  fibres  that  work 
the  arms  and  the  fingers !  And  if  he  sings  at  the  same  time  that 
he  plays,  his  mind  is  sending  messages  also  to  the  muscles  of  the 
chest,  and  throat,  and  mouth.  And  what  adds  greatly  to  the 
wonder  is,  that  all  this  time  the  mind  is  sending  out  so  many 
messages,  it  is  receiving  messages  from  the  senses.  Messages 
are  going  from  the  sounds  of  the  piano  and  the  voice  along  the 
nerves  of  the  ear  to  the  mind.  They  go  also  from  the  tips  of 
the  busy  fingers  as  they  press  the  keys.  How  wonderful  that- 
all  these  messages  are  going  back  and  forth  so  rapidly,  and  the 
mind  in  the  brain  manages  them  without  any  confusion  ! 

I  have  told  you  that  there  are  some  parts  besides  bones  that 
are  moved  by  muscles.  Different  parts  of  the  face  are  moved  by 
them,  and  it  is  this  that  gives  it  its  different  expressions.  Thus, 
when  you  are  pleased  and  laugh,  the  muscles  pull  up  the  corners 


MORE    ABOUT    THE    MUSCLES. 


87 


The  muscles  used  iu  smiling  and  laughing. 


of  the  mouth.     If  you  laugh  very  hard,  they  pull  them  up  very 

much,  as  you  see  in  the 

face  drawn  here.      See 

how  this  face  is  wrinkled 

under  the  eyes.      This 

is  because  the  muscles 

pull  at  the  corners   of 

the  mouth  so  hard  as  to 

push  up  the  cheeks. 

What  do  you  think 
the  difference  is  between 
laughing  and  smiling? 
It  is  this.  In  laughing 
the  corners  of  the  mouth 
are  drawn  up  a  good 
deal,  but  in  smiling  they 
are  drawn  up  only  a  little.  Most  people  think  that  the  eyes 
have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  laughing  and  smiling,  and  they  talk 
about  a  laughing  eye  and  a  pleasant  eye.  But  this  is  not  correct. 
It  is  these  muscles,  which  pull  up  the  corners  of  the  mouth,  that 
make  the  eye  look  pleasant  and  laughing;  indeed,  laughing  and 
smiling  can  be  done  with  the  e}7es  shut.  We  often  see  a  beauti- 
ful smile  in  the  face  of  the  sleeping  infant.  It  is  because  some 
pleasant  dream  in  his  mind  plays  on  the  nerves  that  go  to  his 
smiling  muscles. 


There  are  muscles  to  pull  the  corners  of  the  mouth  down,  and 
these  make  the  face  look  sad ;  and  if  the  muscles  that  wrinkle  the 


88 


MORE    ABOUT   THE    MUSCLES. 


The  sad  muscles. 


Down  in  the  mouth.' 


The  proud  muscle. 


eyebrows  act  at  the  same 
time,  the  face  is  both  sad 
and  cross,  as  you  see  here 
Observe  just  what  the  dif- 
ference is  between  this  face 
and  the  laughing  face  on 
the  preceding  page.  The 
difference  is  merely  in  the 
corners  of  the  mouth  and 
in  the  eyebrows.  In  this 
face  the  two  wrinklers  of 
the  eyebrows  are  in  action, 
and  so  are  the  two  muscles 
that  pull  down  the  corners 
of  the  mouth.  Four  small  muscles,  then,  make  this  face  sad 
and  cross.  But  in  the  laughing  face  the  eyebrow-wrinklers  are 
quiet,  and  the  corners  of  the  mouth  are  pulled  up  instead  of 
being  pulled  down.  It  is  the  two  little  muscles  that  pull  up 
the  corners  of  the  mouth  that  do  all  the  laughing  in  the  face.  -> 
You  have  often  heard  the  expressions,  "  He  had  a  down 
look,"  and  "His  countenance  fell."  These  refer  to  the  effect 
produced  by  sadness  on  the  corners  of  the  mouth.  This  ex- 
plains also  the  meaning  of  the  common  expression,  "Down  in 
the  mouth." 

There  is  a  certain  muscle  called  the  proud  muscle.  It  pushes 
up  the  under  lip.  It  is  chiefly  by  this  that  pouting,  that  ugly 
expression  so  common  with  some  children,  is  done.     When  the 


MORE    ABOUT   THE   MUSCLES.  89 

Snarling  muscles.  The  smiling  of  the  dog.  The  chief  muscles  of  expression. 

eyebrow-wrinklers  act  at  the  same  time,  there  is  scowling  with 
the  pouting,  and  then  the  face  is  very  ugly.  I  beseech  of  you 
not  to  get  into  the  habit  of  using  these  cross  muscles.  Keep 
always  pleasant  and  kind,  and  then  those  nice  little  muscles 
that  draw  up  the  corners  of  the  mouth  will  always  be  ready  to 
light  up  your  face  with  a  cheerfulness  that  shall  be  pleasant  to 
look  upon. 

There  are  some  animals  that  have  certain  muscles  in  the  face 
that  we  have  not.  These  are  the  snarling  muscles.  They  pull 
up  the  lip  at  the  sides  of  the  mouth  so  as  to  show  the  long, 
tearing  teeth.  You  see  them  in  operation  in  the  dog,  the  tiger, 
etc.,  when  they  are  angry.  No  animal  but  man  has  in  the  face 
either  the  frowning,  or  the  sad,  or  the  smiling  muscles.  Per- 
haps you  will  say  that  the  dog  smiles  when  he  is  pleased  and 
looks  up  at  his  master.  He  smiles,  it  is  true,  but  he  does  it 
only  with  his  wagging  tail,  for  he  has  no  muscles  in  his  face  to 
do  it  with. 

How  wonderful  is  the  variety  of  expression  in  the  human 
face  !  And  yet  all  is  caused  by  a  few  muscles,  and  the  principal 
ones  are  those  that  draw  up  and  draw  down  the  corners  of  the 
mouth,  and  those  that  wrinkle  the  eyebrows. 

Questions. — How  many  muscles  are  there  in  the  arm  and  hand  ?  How  many  in 
the  whole  body?  What  is  each  muscle  made  up  of?  What  is  said  of  the  fibres? 
Is  it  common  for  a  motion  to  be  made  by  one  muscle  alone?  What  is  said  about 
raising  the  arm  in  different  ways  ?  What  is  said  about  the  variety  of  rapid  mo- 
tions that  are  sometimes  performed  ?  What  gives  the  face  its  different  expressions  ? 
How  is  laughing  done?  What  makes  the  wrinkling  under  the  eyes  in  laughing? 
What  is  the  difference  between  laughing  and  smiling  ?     Has  the  eye  anything  to  do 


90  MOEE   ABOUT   THE   MUSCLES. 

Questions. 

with  them?  What  is  said  about  the  sad  muscles?  What  about  the  cross  ones? 
What  is  the  difference  between  a  cross  and  sad  face  and  a  laughing  one?  What 
is  said  about  certain  expressions  in  common  use?  What  is  said  about  the  muscles 
of  expression  in  the  face  of  animals?  What  is  said  of  the  variety  of  expression  in 
the  human  face  ? 


THE    BRAIN    AND    NERVES    IN    ANIMALS.  91 


The  brain  the  mind's  central  workshop.  How  animals  learn. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE   BRAIN   AND   NERVES    IN   ANIMALS. 

I  have  told  you  how  your  mind  learns  about  the  world 
around  you,  and  how  it  makes  use  of  its  knowledge  by  means  of 
the  machinery  of  your  body — the  muscles,  bones,  etc.  Your 
mind  is  in  the  brain,  and  uses  the  brain  to  think  with  ;  and  from 
the  brain  branch  out  all  the  nerves  by  which  it  works  all  the 
various  machinery  of  the  body.  Your  brain,  then,  may  be  con- 
sidered the  central  workshop  of  your  mind  *  or  it  is  like  an  en- 
gine-room of  a  factory,  where  the  engine  is  that  keeps  the  ma- 
chinery in  other  parts  of  the  building  in  motion. 

The  different  animals  have  a  brain  and  nerves  just  as  you 
have,  and  their  minds  in  their  brains  learn  about  things  around 
them.  They  do  not  learn  so  much  as  your  mind  does,  it  is  true ; 
but  they  really  do  learn.  If  you  look  at  a  kitten  when  it  is  first 
born,  it  is  very  much  like  a  baby.  It  does  not  know  anything. 
But,  like  the  baby,  it  knows  more  and  more  every  day,  and  when 
it  gets  to  be  a  cat  it  knows  a  great  deal ;  and  all  that  it  knows 
has  come  to  its  mind  in  the  same  way  as  what  you  know  has 
come  into  your  mind.  It  has  come  in  through  its  senses.  All 
its  knowledge  came  in  at  its  eyes  and  ears,  etc.,  and  got  to  its 
brain  by  the  nerves. 

The  mind  in  animals,  too,  uses  the  muscles  in  the  same  way 
that  your  mind  does.     Watch  a  kitten  at  play.     The  muscles 


92  THE   BRAIN   AND    NERVES    IN   ANIMALS. 

The  mind  of  a  kitten  as  it  plays.  The  minds  and  brains  of  insects. 

that  move  her  paws  are  directed  by  her  mind  in  the  brain  by 
means  of  the  nerves.  As  she  pokes  at  the  thing  that  you  hold 
out  to  her,  the  nerves  of  her  eyes  are  telling  the  mind  in  the  brain 
all  the  time  about  the  string,  and  then  the  mind  is  telling  the 
muscles  of  the  paws  what  to  do.  See  her  as  she  springs  to  catch 
the  string  that  you  draw  along  on  the  floor.  As  she  watches  it, 
messages  are  going  from  those  bright  eyes  to  her  mind  in  the 
brain  ;  and  then,  as  she  springs,  messages  are  sent  from  her  brain 
to  a  great  many  muscles  in  different  parts  of  her  body.  The  mind 
tells  the  muscles  just  when  and  how  to  act,  and  they  all  do  exact- 
ly as  the  mind  tells  them.  The  mind  of  a  cat  sets  a  great  deal  of 
machinery  at  work  when  she  makes  a  spring  to  catch  anything. 

What  I  have  told  you  about  some  animals  is  true  of  all.  The 
little  insect  that  flies  out  of  the  way  when  you  strike  at  him  has 
a  little  brain,  and  there  his  mind  thinks  about  what  it  sees,  and 
hears,  and  feels,  etc.,  just  as  your  mind  does ;  and  when  he  flies 
away  so  quickly  from  the  blow  that  his  eyes  see  coming,  his 
mind  tells  the  muscles  to  make  the  wings  go.  There  are  nerves 
that  carry  messages  from  his  senses  to  the  mind  in  his  brain,  and 
there  are  nerves  that  carry  messages  from  his  brain  to  his  mus- 
cles, as  there  are  in  you.  The  brain  is  very  small,  and  the 
nerves  are  very  fine,  but  they  do  their  work  well.  They  make 
a  little  telegraph,  but  it  is  a  good  one. 

What  a  quantity  of  thinking  there  is  done  in  the  brains  of  all 
the  animals  in  the  world  !  How  busy  their  minds  are,  receiving 
reports  from  their  senses,  and  working  all  the  machinery  of  their 
bodies.     Go  out  into  the  garden,  and  see  the  birds,  the  butter- 


THE   BEAIN   AND   NEEVES    IN   ANIMALS.  93 

Animals  that  think  more  than  others  have  larger  brains. 

flies,  the  bees,  tlie  flies,  the  ants,  the  frogs,  the  toads,  and  the 
worms;  they  are  all  busy  thinking.  They  cannot  move  with- 
out thinking.  It  is  their  thinking  that  makes  their  muscles 
move  them.     And  they  think  about  what  they  move  for. 

Some  of  them  think  more  than  others.  The  bird  thinks  more 
than  the  worm.  Some  think  faster  than  others.  The  humming- 
bird, that  darts  so  quickly  from  flower  to  flower,  thinks  as  fast  as 
he  works.  But  the  lazy  toad  is  a  slow  thinker.  His  mind  does 
not  work  the  machinery  of  his  muscles  much,  and  so  does  but  lit- 
tle thinking.  But  even  he  once  in  a  while  thinks  quickly.  Let 
a  fly  walk  along  pretty  near  him,  and  he  will  catch  it  with  his 
tongue  so  quickly  that  you  cannot  see  just  how  he  does  it.  He 
watches  the  fly  intently,  keeping  very  still  all  the  while ;  and  when 
it  gets  near  enough,  he  thrusts  out  his  tongue,  and  the  fly  is  gone. 
You  would  hardly  think  that  so  lazy-looking  an  animal  could  do 
anything  so  quickly.  But  he  is  nimble  as  a  fly-catcher,  if  he  is 
not  nimble  at  anything  else;  and  very  quickly  must  the  mind 
in  his  brain  think  when  it  is  working  its  fly-catching  machinery. 

The  more  an  animal  thinks,  the  larger  is  the  brain  as  compared 
with  the  rest  of  the  body.  Man  thinks  more  than  any  other 
animal,  and  so  he  has  a  large  brain.  But  the  oyster  has  hardly 
anything  that  can  be  called  a  brain,  for  in  his  still  life,  shut  up 
as  he  is  in  his  shell,  he  thinks  but  little.  But  such  animals  as 
horses,  dogs,  cats,  birds,  monkeys,  etc.,  have  quite , large  brains, 
for  they  think  a  great  deal.  Their  brains,  however,  are  not,  by 
any  means,  as  large  as  the  brain  of  man  is  in  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  body. 


94:  THE   BRAIN    AND    NERVES    IN   ANIMALS. 

The  brain  compared  to  machinery. 

This  is  as  we  should  suppose  it  would  be.  The  brain  is  the 
machinery  with  which  the  mind  thinks.  Now,  whenever  we 
see  a  great  deal  of  machinery  together,  at  work,  we  know  that  it 
is  because  there  is  much  to  be  done  by  it;  and  when  we  see  a 
small  machine  that  has  not  many  different  parts,  we  know  that 
it  is  not  intended  to  do  much.  So  it  is  with  the  mind's  think- 
ing machinery.  The  brain  of  an  animal  that  thinks  but  little  is 
small  and  simple;  but  the  brain  of  one  that  thinks  much  is 
large  and  has  many  parts.  Though  animals  do  their  thinking 
with  their  brains  as  we  do  with  ours,  there  is  some  thinking 
that  we  do  that  they  cannot.  There  are  some  things  about 
which  they  know  nothing.  But  I  will  tell  you  about  this  in 
another  chapter. 

Questions. — What  does  your  mind  do  with  your  brain?  How  is  your  brain  like 
the  engine-room  of  a  factory  ?  What  is  said  about  the  minds  of  different  animals  ? 
How  is  a  kitten,  when  it  is  first  born,  like  a  baby?  How  does  it  learn?  What  is 
said  about  the  mind,  and  brain,  and  nerves  of  an  insect  ?  What  is  said  about  the 
quantity  of  thinking  done  in  the  brains  of  animals?  How  do  some  differ  from  oth- 
ers in  their  thinking  ?  Tell  about  the  toad.  What  is  said  about  the  size  of  the 
brain  in  different  animals  ?     How  is  the  brain  compared  with  machinery  ? 


THE    VARIETY    OF    MACHINERY    IN   ANIMALS.  95 


Machinery  in  the  oyster  suited  to  its  wants. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   VARIETY    OF    MACHINERY   IN    ANIMALS. 

You  have  seen  what  a  variety  of  curious  machinery  there  is  in 
our  bodies  for  our  minds  to  work,  besides  that  which  is  needed 
to  keep  the  body  in  repair.  But  I  have  told  you  some  things 
about  other  animals  as  I  have  gone  along.  There  is  in  them  also 
a  great  deal  of  machinery,  and  it  is  different  in  each.  The  va- 
riety of  it  is  wonderful.  You  see  that  the  world  is  everywhere 
full  of  many  kinds  of  animals,  making  it  a  very  busy  world.  I 
do  not  believe  that  you  have  ever  thought  how  different  they 
are  from  each  other.     I  will  therefore  tell  you  a  little  about  this. 

See  what  a  difference  there  is  between  man  and  some  animals. 
Look  at  the  oyster.  He  lives  in  the  water,  shut  up  in  his  rough 
shell.  He  is  no  traveller.  He  has  no  eyes  to  see  sights  with. 
He  has  no  sense  of  smell.  He  has  taste  for  his  food,  and,  no 
doubt,  enjoys  it.  He  has  the  sense  of  touch ;  this  he  needs, 
both  to  manage  his  food  and  to  guard  himself  against  harm.  As 
he  does  not  move  about,  and  has  no  feet  or  hands,  he  has  but 
few  muscles.  He  has  one  to  shut  up  his  shell  tight,  which  he 
does  when  he  is  alarmed.  His  brain  and  nerves  are  very  small 
affairs,  for  he  has  little  use  for  such  things. 

There  is  little  machinery,  then,  in  an  oyster,  as  you  compare  it 
with  the  machinery  in  your  body ;  and  it  is  simply  because  he 
does  not  need  so  much  as  you  do.     If  he  had  needed  more,  God 


96 


THE    VARIETY    OF    MACHINERY    IN    ANIMALS. 


The  hydra — all  stomach  and  arms. 


How  it  acts  when  alarmed. 


would  have  given  it  to  him.  But  there  is,  after  all,  considerable 
machinery  even  in  the  oyster.  He  has  machinery  for  digesting 
his  food.  lie  has  circulating  machinery — a  heart  with  its  arteries 
and  veins.  And  he  has  gills  like  fishes,  by  which  his  blood  is 
aired  by  the  air  in  the  water.  Then  he  lias  a  few  muscles,  some 
nerves,  and  a  sort  of  brain. 

Look,  now,  at  another  animal  that  has  less  contrivances  in  him 
than  the  oyster.  Look  at  the  hydra. 
This  is  a  very  little  animal  which  is  found 
in  ponds,  sticking  to  a  straw  or  stick  by  a 
sort  of  sucker.  Here  is  a  representation 
of  it.  The  small  figure  shows  it  of  its 
natural  size.  The  larger  figure  shows  it 
as  magnified  by  the  microscope.  This 
animal  is  little  else  than  a  stomach  with 
lung  arms.  We  can  turn  the  body  of 
it — that  is,  the  stomach,  inside  out,  and 
the  animal  will  do  as  well  as  before.  The 
arms  are  merely  to  catch  things,  as  worms 
and  insects,  which  they  put  into  the  mouth 
of  the  stomach,  marked  a.  One  of  the 
arms  is  represented  as  having  caught  something,  which  it  is  about 
to  put  into  this  mouth.  When  the  little  creature  is  alarmed,  he 
gathers  up  all  his  arms  around  his  stomach,  and  looks  like  a  lit- 
tle ball.  No  brain  has  ever  been  discovered  in  him,  but  it  is  plain 
that  he  thinks  some  in  catching  his  food,  and  in  gathering  him- 
self into  a  ball  to  escape  notice. 


THE    VARIETY    OF   MACHINERY    IN   ANIMALS. 


97 


One  of  the  arms  of  the  hydra  magnified. 


Contrivances  in  animals  almost  endles 


Here  is  one  of  the  arms  of  this  animal  as  seen  with  a 
powerful  microscope.  It  is  made  up  of  little  cells  or 
bladder-like  things.  How  it  is  that  these  make  the  dif- 
ferent motions  of  this  arm  we  do  not  know. 

The  two  animals  that  I  have  just  told  you  about  are 
very  unlike  to  man,  but  they  are  not  more  so  than  a 
multitude  of  others.  The  variety  in  the  shapes  of  ani- 
mals and  in  the  arrangements  of  their  different  parts  is 
almost  endless;  but,  with  all  this  variety,  all  are  alike  in 
some  things. 

The  variety  in  the  contrivances  in  animals  is  so  great, 
that  when  one  undertakes  to  study  them,  he  continually 
finds  something  new.  And  one  thing  is  always  true  of 
the  machinery  in  animals — it  is  perfect.  It  is  always 
exactly  fitted  to  do  just  what  it  is  made  for.  No  ma- 
chinery that  man  ever  made  is  equal  to  it. 

Animals  are  suited  in  their  shapes  and  arrangements  to  the 
way  in  which  they  live.  Some  are  made  to  fly.  These  have 
wings;  and  the  wings  exhibit  great  variety,  as  you  see  if  you 
look  at  the  birds  and  insects  that  are  so  busy  in  the  air.  Some 
animals  are  made  to  live  in  the  water;  most  of  these  have  a 
broad  tail  and  fins  to  swim  with,  but  some  crawl,  as  the  crab. 
Some  float  about,  like  the  hydra,  and  some  lie  still,  like  the 
oyster. 

Some  animals  walk  about  on  the  ground.  Man  is  the  only 
animal  that  walks  about  erect  upon  two  feet.  The  beasts,  you 
know,  are  four-footed.     The  monkey  is  one  of  the  most  singular 

16 


98 


THE    VARIETY    OF    MACHINERY    IN    ANIMALS. 


How  different  animals  mov< 


The  organs  of  some  animals  like  those  of  man. 


-^ 


of  beasts:  lie  has  neither  feet  nor  hands,  but  some  things  which 
are  like  both.  With  these  he  is  more  of  a  climber  than  a  walker. 
There  are  many  small  animals  that  walk  on  many  feet.    And  the 

snakes,  without  any  feet,  crawl 
along  the  ground.  Some  animals 
hop,  as  the  frog  and  toad.  Some 
go  by  a  long  jump,  as  the  grass- 
hopper, and  the  troublesome  lit- 
tle flea,  which  is  here  represented 
as  magnified  by  the  microscope. 
Very  strong  muscles  must  this 
animal  have  to  enable  it  to  make 
such  leaps  with  its  long,  crooked  legs. 

There  is  great  variety  in  the  coverings  of  animals.  But  I  will 
tell  you  about  these  in  another  chapter. 

Some  animals  are  much  more  like  man  than  others.  The 
bones,  and  muscles,  and  nerves,  and  heart,  and  brain  of  some  are 
very  much  like  the  same  things  in  our  bodies.  This  is  true  of 
many  of  the  four-footed  animals.  You  can  therefore  know  how 
the  parts  of  the  machinery  inside  of  yon  look  by  observing  the 
different  parts  of  animals  at  the  meat-market.  In  a  calf's  head 
you  can  see  how  your  brain  looks.  Its  lungs,  or  lights,  as  they 
are  commonly  called,  are  very  much  like  yours,  and  its  heart  is 
quite  like  your  heart.     And  so  of  other  parts. 

The  more  an  animal  moves,  the  more  muscles  he  has  to  make 
liis  motions  with.  Man  has  more  variety  of  motion  than  any 
other  animal,  and  so  has  more  muscles.     God  gives  to  each  ani- 


THE    VARIETY    OF   MACHINERY    IN    ANIMALS.  99 

Variety  of  machinery  in  man.      *  What  the  mind  of  man  does. 

mal  just  the  machinery  that  it  needs.  Some  have  machinery 
that  others  do  not  have.  Some  have  very  little,  while  others 
have  a  great  deal.  In  our  bodies  there  is  a  great  variety  of  ma- 
chinery, for  our  busy  minds  want  to  know  and  to  do  very  many 
things. 

The  mind  of  man  does  more  things  with  the  hand  than  with 
any  other  part  of  its  machinery.  I  shall  therefore  now  go  on  to 
tell  you  about  the  hand,  and  then  about  those  things  that,  in  dif- 
ferent animals,  answer  somewhat  in  place  of  hands. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  variety  of  machinery  in  the  bodies  of  animals  ? 
What  senses  has  the  oyster?  Why  does  he  have  these?  What  is  said  of  his  mus- 
cles? What  of  his  brain  and  nerves?  Why  has  not  the  oyster  as  much  machinery 
in  his  body  as  there  is  in  yours?  What  machinery  has  he?  Tell  all  about  the 
hydra.  What  is  said  about  his  brain?  What  are  his  arms  made  of?  In  what 
things  are  all  animals  alike?  Plow  does  the  machinery  in  animals  compare  with 
that  made  by  man  ?  What  are  the  shapes  and  machinery  of  animals  suited  to?  Tell 
about  animals  that  fly — those  that  live  in  the  water — those  that  walk.  What  is  said 
about  man  ?  What  is  said  about  the  monkey  ?  Mention  some  animals  that  hop — 
some  that  make  a  long  jump — those  that  crawl  without  feet.  What  animals  are 
much  like  man,  and  in  what  ?  Why  is  there  so  great  a  variety  of  machinery  in  our 
bodies  ?     What  part  of  the  machinery  do  our  minds  use  most  ? 


100  TIIE    HAND. 


The  hand  a  set  of  machinery.  It  does  both  coarse  and  fine  work. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

THE    HAND. 

Man  is  the  only  animal  that  has  a  hand.  The  monkey  has 
something  like  a  hand  ;  but,  if  you  watch  him  as  he  takes  things, 
you  will  see  that  it  is  a  very  awkward  and  bungling  thing  com- 
pared with  your  hand. 

The  hand  is  often  said  to  be  a  wonderful  instrument.  I  would 
rather  say  that  it  is  a  wonderful  set  of  machinery.  An  instru- 
ment or  tool  is  commonly  fitted  to  do  only  one  thing,  as  a  chisel, 
a  spade,  a  saw,  etc.  But  how  many  and  how  different  things  can 
be  done  with  the  hand  ! 

Let  us  look  at  some  things  that  the  hand  can  do.  See  the 
blacksmith  wielding  the  heavy  hammer;  how  strongly  his  hand 
grasps  the  handle  !  See  how  it  is  done.  The  fingers  and  thumb 
are  bent  by  those  large  muscles  that  are  up  in  the  arm.  Now 
these  same  fingers,  that  grasp  the  hammer  so  strongly,  and  do 
this  heavy  work,  can  be  trained  to  do  work  of  the  lightest  and 
finest  kind.  They  can  take  hold  of  the  pen  and  write.  They 
can  move  the  tool  of  the  engraver,  making  those  fine  lines  that 
you  sometimes  see. 

In  the  machines  that  man  makes  there  is  no  such  changing 
from  coarse,  heavy  work  to  that  which  is  fine  and  delicate.  No 
man  ever  made  a  machine  that  would  pull  a  large  rope  one 
moment,  and  the  next  pull  a  fine  thread,  and  do  the  one  just 


THE    HAND.  101 


Variety  of  things  done  by  the  hand.      The  most  common  things  that  it  does  wonderful. 

as  well  as  the  other.  But  that  wonderful  machine,  the  hand, 
can  do  this.  It  can  grasp  the  rope  firmly,  and  yet  can  take  bo 
tween  its  thumb  and  finger  a  thread  so  fine  that  you  can  hardly 
see  it. 

But  the  difference  in  the  work  of  the  hand  is  not  merely  in 
coarseness  and  fineness.  It  can  do  a  great  many  different  kinds 
of  coarse  work  and  a  great  many  different  kinds  of  fine  work. 
The  hand  works  very  differently  with  different  things.  See  how 
differently  it  manages  a  rope,  a  hammer,  a  spade,  a  hoe,  a  knife 
and  fork,  etc.  It  takes  hold  of  them  in  different  ways  to  work 
them.  And  then,  as  to  fine  work,  how  differently  it  manages  a 
pen,  an  engraver's  tool,  a  thread,  a  needle,  etc. 

If  you  watch  people  as  they  do  different  things,  you  can  get 
some  idea  of  the  variety  of  the  work  that  the  hand  can  perform. 
See  how  differently  the  fingers  are  continually  placed  as  one  is 
playing  on  an  instrument.  You  can  see  very  well  what  a  variety 
of  shapes  the  hand  can  be  put  into  if  you  observe  a  deaf-and- 
dumb  person  talking  with  his  fingers.  On  the  following  page  is 
a  representation  of  the  different  ways  in  which  the  letters  are 
made. 

The  most  common  things  that  we  do  with  our  hands  are  really 
wonderful.  Watch  one  as  he  is  buttoning  up  his  coat;  how 
easily  his  fingers  do  it ;  and  yet  it  is  a  wonderful  performance. 
Suppose  a  man  should  try  to  make  a  machine,  shaped  like  the 
hand,  that  would  do  the  same  thing,  do  you  think  that  he  would 
succeed  %  It  would  be  very  strange  if  he  did.  Suppose,  how- 
ever, that,  after  working  a  long  time,  he  did  really  succeed,  and 


102 


THE    HAND. 


Variety  of  shapes  which  the  hand  takes  in  the  deaf-and-dumb  alphabet. 


Thej  is  made  by  raising  the  little  finger  as  represented,  and  then  moving  it  as  if 
to  make  the  tail  of  the  letter.  The  z  is  made  by  raising  the  forefinger,  and  moving 
it  in  a  zigzag  way. 


THE    HAND.  103 


A  buttoning-machine.  The  hand  an  instrument  of  feeling. 

that  you  saw  his  machine,  with  its  fingers  and  thumb,  put  a  but- 
ton through  a  button-hole  in  the  same  way  that  you  do  it  with 
your  fingers.  Do  you  think  that  it  could  manage  buttons  of  all 
sizes,  large,  middle-sized,  and  small  %  No  ;  it  could  only  button 
those  that  are  of  one  size.  The  different  sized  buttons  would  re- 
quire different  machines ;  and,  besides,  a  machine  that  could  button 
up  could  not  unbutton.  But  your  hand  is  a  machine  that,  besides 
buttoning  and  unbuttoning  buttons  of  various  sizes,  is  doing  con- 
tinually a  great  variety  of  things  that  machines  cannot  do.  No 
machine  can  take  up  a  pen  and  write,  or  even  move  a  stick  about 
as  your  hand  can.  When  some  ingenious  man  makes  a  machine 
that  can  do  any  one  thing  like  what  the  hand  does,  it  excites  our 
wonder,  and  we  say,  How  curious  !  how  wonderful !  how  much 
like  a  hand  it  works ! 

But  the  hand  is  not  merely  a  machine  that  performs  a  great 
many  motions ;  it  is  also  an  instrument  with  which  the  mind 
feels  things.  And  what  a  delicate  instrument  it  is  for  this  pur- 
pose !  How  small  are  the  things  that  you  sometimes  feel  with 
the  point  of  the  finger !  As  you  pass  it  over  a  smooth  surface, 
the  slightest  roughness  is  felt.  A  great  deal  of  knowledge,  as  I 
told  you  in  Chapter  XIII.,  gets  into  your  mind  through  the  tips 
of  your  fingers.  Messages  are  going  from  them  continually  by 
the  nerves  to  the  mind  in  the  brain.  The  blind,  I  have  told 
you,  read  with  their  fingers.  They  pass  them  over  raised  letters, 
and  the  nerves  of  the  fingers  tell  the  mind  what  the  letters  are, 
just  as  the  nerves  of  your  eyes  are  now  telling  your  mind  what 
the  letters  are  in  this  book. 


104  THE   HAND. 


The  hand  guided  by  the  touch.  Uow  it  differs  from  machines  made  by  man. 

Now,  while  the  hand  is  performing  its  different  motions  as  a 
machine,  it  is  generally  very  much  guided  by  this  sense  of  touch. 
If  your  hand  had  no  feeling  in  it,  it  would  make  awkward  busi- 
ness even  in  such  a  simple  operation  as  buttoning ;  and  it  could 
not  do  it  at  all  if  you  did  not  look  on  all  the  time  that  it  was 
doing  it.  Your  eye-nerves  would  have  to  take  the  place  of  your 
finger-nerves,  as  in  the  reading  of  the  blind  the  finger-nerves 
take  the  place  of  the  eye-nerves.  As  it  is,  you  need  not  look  at 
your  fingers  while  they  are  buttoning,  for  they  are  guided  by 
the  feeling  that  is  in  them. 

There  was  once  a  woman  who  lost  the  use  of  one  arm,  and  at 
the  same  time  lost  all  her  feeling  in  the  other.  She  had  a  baby 
to  take  care  of.  She  could  hold  it  with  the  arm  that  had  no 
feeling,  because  she  could  work  the  muscles  in  that  arm,  but  she 
could  not  do  it  without  looking  at  it  all  the  time.  If  she  looked 
away,  the  arm  would  stop  holding  the  baby  and  let  it  fall,  for  it 
could  not  feel  that  it  was  there.  In  her  case  the  eye-nerves  had 
to  keep  watch  in  place  of  the  arm-nerves  that  could  not  feel. 

You  see  that  the  hand  is  different  from  the  machines  that  man 
makes  in  two  things — in  the  variety  of  things  that  it  can  do,  and 
in  the  connection  which  it  has  with  the  mind  by  the  nerves. 
While  the  mind,  by  the  nerves,  makes  it  do  things,  it  knows  by 
other  nerves  all  the  time  whether  it  is  doing  them  right. 

See,  now,  what  are  the  parts  of  this  wonderful  set  of  machin- 
ery. There  are  in  the  hand  and  arm  thirty  bones.  There  are 
about  fifty  muscles,  and  all  these  are  connected  with  the  brain 
by  nerves.     It  is  by  them  that  the  mind  makes  the  muscles  per- 


THE    HAND.  105 


How  to  get  an  idea  of  the  variety  of  things  which  the  hand  can  do. 

form  all  the  various  motions  of  the  hand  and  fingers,  and  then 
there  are  other  nerves  that  tell  the  mind  what  is  felt  in  any  part 
of  this  machinery. 

I  have  mentioned  in  this  chapter  a  few  of  tli£  things  that  are 
done  by  the  hand,  but  there  is  no  end  to  the  things  that  can  be 
done  by  this  set  of  machinery.  Yon  can  get  some  idea  of  this 
in  two  ways — by  moving  your  hands  and  fingers  about  in  all 
sorts  of  ways,  and  by  thinking  of  as  many  as  you  can  of  the  dif- 
ferent things  that  people,  in  work  or  in  play,  do  with  their  hands. 
And  observe  in  how  many  more  ways  the  hand  is  useful  than 
the  foot  is.  The  foot  has  but  a  few  things  to  do  compared  with 
the  multitude  of  things  done  by  the  hand. 

Questions. — What  animal  has  something  like  a  hand  ?  How  does  it  compare  with 
your  hand  ?  Why  would  you  call  the  hand  a  set  of  machinery  rather  than  an  instru- 
ment? What  is  said  about  the  fingers  doing  heavy  and  light  work?  Tell  about  the 
rope  and  the  thread.  What  is  said  about  the  different  kinds  of  both  coarse  and  fine 
work  that  the  hand  can  do?  What  is  said  about  playing  on  an  instrument?  What 
is  said  of  the  alphabet  of  the  deaf  and  dumb?  What  is  said  about  the  common 
things  done  continually  by  the  hand?  What  is  said  of  the  hand  as  an  instrument 
for  feeling  ?  If  your  hand  had  no  feeling,  what  would  happen  ?  Tell  about  the 
woman  who  lost  the  power  of  motion  in  one  arm  and  feeling  in  the  other.  In  what 
two  things  is  the  hand  different  from  the  machines  made  by  man?  What  are  the 
parts  of  the  machinery  of  the  hand  ?  In  what  two  ways  can  you  get  an  idea  of  the 
variety  of  things  that  this  machinery  can  do? 


106 


WHAT   ANIMALS    USE    FOR    HANDS. 


now  teeth  can  serve  in  place  of  hands. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

WHAT   ANIMALS    USE    FOK    HANDS. 

Though  animals  do  not  have  hands,  they  have  different  parts 
which  they  use  to  do  some  of  the  same  things  that  we  do  with 
our  hands.     I  will  tell  you  about  some  of  these  in  this  chapter. 


>.§iMSfe 

You  see  this  dog  dragging  along  a  rope  which  he  holds  in  his 
mouth.  He  is  making  his  teeth  answer  in  place  of  hands.  Dogs 
always  do  this  when  they  carry  things.  They  cannot  carry  them 
in  any  other  way.     You  carry  a  basket  along  in  your  hand,  but 


WHAT   ANIMALS    USE   FOE    HANDS.  107 

Cropping  grass.  Anecdotes  of  horses. 

the  dog  takes  it  between  his  teeth,  because  lie  has  no  hand  as 
you  have. 

I  have  told  you,  in  another  chapter,  how  the  cow  and  the  horse 
crop  the  grass.  They  do  it,  you  know,  with  their  front  teeth. 
They  take  up  almost  any  kind  of  food — a  potato,  an  apple — with 
these  teeth.  These  teeth,  then,  answer  for  hands  to  the  cow  and 
horse.  Their  lips  answer  also  the  same  purpose  in  many  cases. 
The  horse  gathers  his  oats  into  his  mouth  with  the  lips.  The 
lips  are  for  hands  to  such  animals  in  another  respect.  They  feel 
things  with  their  lips  just  as  we  do  with  the  tips  of  our  fingers. 

My  horse  once,  in  cropping  some  grass,  took  hold  of  some  that 
was  so  stout  and  so  loose  in  the  earth  that  he  pulled  it  up  by  the 
roots.  As  he  ate  it  the  dirt  troubled  him.  He  therefore  knocked 
the  grass  several  times  against  the  fence,  holding  it  firmly  in  his 
teeth,  and  thus  got  the  dirt  out,  just  as  people  do  out  of  a  mat 
when  they  strike  it  against  anything.  I  once  knew  a  horse  that 
would  lift  a  latch  or  shove  a  bolt  with  his  front  teeth  as  readily 
as  you  would  with  your  hand.  He  would  get  out  of  the  barn- 
yard in  this  way.  But  this  was  at  length  prevented  by  a  very 
simple  contrivance.  A  piece  of  iron  was  fixed  in  such  a  manner 
at  the  end  of  the  bolt  that  you  could  not  shove  the  bolt  unless 
you  raised  the  iron  at  the  same  time.  Probably  this  puzzled  the 
horse's  brain.  Even  if  he  understood  it,  he  could  not  manage 
the  two  things  together.  I  have  heard  about  a  horse  that  would 
take  hold  of  a  pump-handle  with  his  teeth  and  pump  water  into 
a  trough  when  he  wanted  to  drink.  This  wras  in  a  pasture  where 
there  were  several  horses;  and  what  is  very  curious,  the  other 


108 


WHAT    ANIMALS    USE    FOR    HANDS. 


Monkeys  great  climbers?. 


"What  cats  use  in  place  of  hands. 


horses, 


they  wanted  to  drink,  would,  if  they  found  the 


trough  empty,  tease  this  horse  that  knew  how  to  pump ;  they 
would  get  around  him,  and  bite  and  kick  him  till  he  would 
pump  some  water  for  them. 

Monkeys  have  four  things 
like  hands.  The}'  are  half-way 
between  hands  and  feet.  With 
these  they  are  very  skilful  at 
climbing.  There  are  some  kinds 
of  monkeys,  as  the  one  repre- 
sented here,  that  use  their  tails 
in  climbing  as  a  sort  of  fifth 
hand. 

The  cat  uses  for  hands  some- 
times her  paws,  with  their  sharp 
claws,  sometimes  her  teeth,  and 
sometimes  both  together.  She 
climbs  with  her  claws.  She 
catches  things  with  them — mice,  rats,  or  anything  that  you  hold 
out  for  her  to  run  after.  She  strikes  with  her  paws,  just  as 
angry  children  and  men  sometimes  do  with  their  hands.  When 
the  cat  moves  her  kittens  from  one  place  to  another  she  takes 
them  up  with  her  teeth  by  the  nape  of  the  neck.  There  is 
no  other  way  in  which  she  can  do  it.  She  cannot  walk  on  her 
hind-feet  and  carry  them  with  her  fore-paws.  It  seems  as  if  it 
would  hurt  a  kitten  to  carry  it  in  the  way  that  she  does,  but  it 
does  not. 


WHAT   ANIMALS    USE    FOR    HANDS. 


109 


The  dormousi 


The  humming-bird's  bill. 


When  a  squirrel  nibbles  a 
nut  to  make  a  hole  in  it,  he 
holds  it  between  his  two  fore- 
paws  like  hands.  So  also 
does  the  dormouse,  which 
you  see  here. 

The  bill  of  a  bird  is  used 
as  its  hand.  It  gathers  with 
it  its  food  to  put  into  its  crop. 

When  you  throw  corn  out  to  the  hens,  how  fast  they  pick  it  up, 
and  send  it  down  into  their  crops  to  be  well  soaked !  The  hum- 
ming-bird has  a  very  long  bill,  and  in  it  lies  a  long,  slender,  and 
very  delicate  tongue.  As  he  poises  himself  in  the  air  before  a 
flower,  his  wings  fluttering  so  quickly  that  you  cannot  see  them, 
he  runs  his  bill  into  the  bottom  of  the  flower  where  the  insects 
are. 

The  humming-birds  are  now  known  to  be  insect-eaters  to  a 
great  extent;  and  though  they  appear  to  suck  honey  or  nectar 
from  the  flowers  they  visit,  are  really  searching  for  insects.  The 
humming-bird  moth,  a  kind  of  night  butterfly,  looks  so  much 
like  a  real  bird  some  people  mistake  one  for  the  other.  There 
are  some  humming-birds  that  are  but  a  trifle  larger  than  a 
humble-bee  ;  and  the  humming-bird  moth  is  twice  that  size. 
The  resemblance  between  the  latter  insect  and  some  of  our  more 
common  humming-birds,  in  size,  form,  flight,  flitting,  and  hum- 
ming, is  very  great.  The  way  each  approach  a  flower  and  hover 
over  it  is  much  the  same. 


110 


WnAT    ANIMALS    USE   FOR    HANDS. 


The  bill  of  a  cluck.    The  power  of  the  elephant's  trunk  and  the  variety  of  things  it  can  do. 

The  bill  of  the  duck  is  made  in  a  peculiar  way.  You  know  that 
it  gets  its  food  under  water  in  the  mud.  It  cannot  see,  therefore, 
what  it  gets.     It  has  to  work  altogether  bv  feeling,  and  it  has 

nerves  in  its  bill  for 
this  purpose.  Here 
is  a  picture  of  its  billj 
showing  the  nerves 
branching  out  on  it. 
You  see,  too,  a  row 
of  pointed  things  all  around  the  edge.  They  look  like  teeth, 
but  they  are  not  teeth.  They  are  used  by  the  duck  in  finding 
its  food.  It  manages  in  this  way :  it  thrusts  its  bill  down,  and 
as  it  takes  it  up  it  is  full  of  mud.  Now  mixed  with  the  mud 
are  things  which  the  duck  lives  on.  The  nerves  tell  the  duck 
what  is  good,  and  it  lets  all  the  rest  go  out  between  the  prickles. 
It  is  a  sort  of  sifting  operation,  the  nerves  in  the  sieve  taking 
good  care  that  nothing  good  shall  pass  out. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  things  used  in  place  of  a  hand  is 
the  trunk  of  the  elephant.  The  variety  of  uses  to  which  the  ele- 
phant puts  this  organ  is  very  wonderful.  It  can  strike  very 
heavy  blows  with  it.  It  can  wrench  of!  branches  of  trees,  or 
even  pull  up  trees  by  the  roots,  by  winding  its  trunk  around 
them  to  grasp  them,  as  you  see  it  is  doing  here.  It  is  its  arm 
with  which  it  carries  its  young.  It  is  amusing  to  see  an  old  ele- 
phant carefully  wind  its  trunk  around  a  new-born  elephant,  and 
carry  it  gently  along. 

But  the  elephant  can  also  do  some  very  little  things  with  his 


WHAT   ANIMALS   USE  FOE   HANDS.  Ill 


The  elephant's  trunk  can  do  little  things  as  well  as  great. 


trunk.  You  see  in  this  picture  that  there  is  a  sort  of  finger  at 
the  very  end  of  the  trunk.  It  is  a  very  nimble 
finger,  and  with  it  this  monstrous  animal  can  do  a 
great  variety  of  little  things.  He  will  take  with  it 
little  bits  of  bread,  and  other  kinds  of  food  that 
you  hand  to  him,  and  put  them  into  his  mouth.  He 
will  take  up  a  piece  of  money  from  the  ground  as 
easily  as  you  can  with  your  fingers.  It  is  with  this 
finger,  too,  that  he  feels  of  things  just  as  you  do  with  your 
fingers.  I  once  saw  an  elephant  take  a  whip  with  this  fingered 
end  of  his  trunk,  and  use  it  as  handily  as  a  teamster,  very  much 
to  the  amusement  of  the  spectators. 


112  WIIAT   ANIMALS    USE    FOE  HANDS. 

The  elephant  and  the  tailor. 

The  elephant  can  reach  a  considerable  distance  with  his  trunk. 
And  this  is  necessary,  because  he  lias  so  very  short  a  neck.  He 
could  not  get  at  his  food  without  his  long  trunk.  Observe,  too, 
how  he  can  turn  this  trunk  about  in  every  direction,  and  twist 
it  about  in  every  way.  It  is  really  a  wonderful  piece  of  machin- 
ery. Cuvier,  a  great  French  anatomist,  says  that  there  are  over 
thirty  thousand  little  muscles  in  it.  All  this  army  of  muscles 
receive  their  orders  by  nerves  from  the  mind  in  the  brain,  and 
how  well  they  obey  them ! 

You  see  that  there  are  two  holes  in  the  end  of  the  trunk,  his 
nostrils.  Into  these  he  can  suck  water,  and  thus  fill  his  trunk 
with  it.  Then  he  can  turn  the  end  of  his  trunk  into  his  mouth 
and  let  the  water  run  down  his  throat.  But  sometimes  lie  uses 
the  water  in  his  trunk  in  another  \va.y ;  he  blows  it  out  through 
his  trunk  with  great  force.  He  does  this  when  he  wants  to  wash 
himself,  directing  his  trunk  in  such  a  way  that  the  water  will 
pour  over  him.  He  sometimes  blows  the  water  out  in  play,  for 
even  such  great  animals  have  sports  like  children.  Sometimes, 
too,  he  blows  the  water  on  people  that  he  does  not  like.  You 
perhaps  have  read  the  story  of  the  tailor  who  pricked  the  trunk 
of  an  elephant  with  his  needle.  The  elephant,  as  he  was  pass- 
ing, put  his  trunk  into  the  shop  window,  hoping  that  the  tailor 
would  give  him  something  to  eat.  He  was  angry  at  being 
pricked,  and  was  determined  to  make  the  man  sorry  for  doing 
such  an  unkind  act.  As  his  keeper  led  him  back  past  the  same 
window,  he  poured  upon  the  tailor  his  trunkful  of  dirty  water, 
which  he  had  taken  from  a  puddle  for  this  purpose. 


WHAT   ANIMALS    USE   FOR    HANDS.  113 

Questions. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  dog?  What  answer  for  hands  to  the  cow  and 
the  horse?  Tell  the  anecdotes  about  horses.  What  does  the  cat  use  for  hands,  and 
how  ?  What  is  said  about  the  squirrel  and  dormouse  ?  What  is  the  bird's  hand  ? 
Tell  about  feeding  the  hens.  What  do  the  humming-birds  feed  on  mostly?  What 
insect  resembles  a  humming-bird?  In  what  way  does  the  insect  resemble  the  bird  ? 
How  small  are  the  smallest  humming-birds  ?  Tell  about  the  bill  of  the  duck.  What 
is  told  of  the  humming-bird  ?  Mention  some  of  the  variety  of  uses  to  which  the  ele- 
phant can  put  his  trunk.  What  is  said  about  the  finger  on  the  end  of  it?  Why  does 
the  elephant  need  so  long  a  trunk  ?  What  is  said  about  the  muscles  in  it  ?  How  does 
the  elephant  drink  ?     How  does  he  wash  himself?     Tell  about  the  tailor. 

17 


114 


THE    TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS. 


Man  alone  makes  tools. 


Animals  have  some  kinds  of  tools  ready  made. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


THE   TOOLS    OF    ANIMALS. 

Man  is  the  only  animal  that  makes  tools  to  use.  God  has  given 
him  a  mind  that  can  contrive  tools,  and  he  has  also  given  him 
hands  by  which  he  can  use  them.  But  he  has  given  no  such 
mind  to  other  animals,  and  therefore  he  has  not  given  them 
hands.  They  do  not  know  enough  to  make  tools,  and  so  hands 
are  not  needed  by  them. 

But,  though  other  animals  do  not  make  tools,  they  have  tools 
which  they  use.  God  has  given  them  ready  made,  as  we  may 
say,  such  tools  as  they  need.  Let  us  look,  then,  at  some  of  the 
tools  that  we  find  in  different  animals. 

jMb-^L,  You  see  a  man  in  the 

stern  or  hinder  end  of  a 
small  boat.  He  is  scull- 
ing, as  it  is  called.  He 
is  making  the  boat  go 
by  working  the  oar  to 
the  one  side  and  the 
other.  The  oar  is  the 
tool  or  instrument  by 
which  he  does  it.  Now 
a  fish  has  an  instrument 
like  this,  by  which  he 


THE   TOOLS   OF  ANIMALS.  115 

The  tail  of  a  fish  a  scnlling-oar.  The  drill  of  the  woodpecker. 

goes  through  the  water.  His  tail  is  like  the  sculling-oar  that 
man  has  contrived,  and  which  he  uses  with  his  hands.  If  you 
watch  the  fish  as  he  goes  through  the  water,  you  will  see  that  he 
moves  it  to  one  side  and  the  other  as  the  man  does  his  oar;  and 
while  he  goes  ahead  by  means  of  his  tail,  he  uses  his  fins  mostly 
as  balancers  to  guide  his  motion.  He  moves  them  rather  gently 
except  when  he  wants  to  change  his  course  quickly.  When  he 
is  moving  along  fast,  and  wants  to  stop,  he  makes  his  fins  stand 
out  straight  on  each  side.  This  is  just  as  rowers  in  a  boat  use 
their  oars  when  they  want  to  stop  the  boat. 

You  see  a  man  drilling  a  hole  in  a  rock,  and  you  hear  the 
sound  of  the  tool  as  it  goes  click,  click,  all  the  while.  The  wood- 
pecker has  a  drill  that  works  in  the  same  way.  With  his  bill  he 
drills  holes  in  the  trees,  and  you  hear  the  sound  of  his  tool  as 
you  do  that  of  the  tool  of  the  rock-blaster.  It  is  a  sort  of  knock- 
ing sound  repeated  many  times  very  quickly. 

What  do  you  think  that  the  woodpecker  drills  holes  for?  It 
is  to  get  at  worms  and  insects,  which  he  eats.  These  are  in  the 
bark  and  wood  of  dead  trunks  and  branches  of  trees.  The  wood- 
pecker knows  this,  and  so  drills  to  find  them.  He  does  not  drill 
into  live  bark  and  wood,  for  he  knows  that  there  are  generally 
no  worms  or  insects  there. 

But  the  woodpecker's  instrument  is  something  more  than  a 
drill.  It  is  a  drill  with  another  instrument  inside  of  it.  This 
instrument  is  for  pulling  out  the  insect  or  worm  that  he  finds  in 
drilling.  It  is  shown  in  the  following  figure.  It  is  a  very  long, 
straight  tongue,  and  ends  in  a  bony  thorn.     This  is,  as  you  see, 


116 


THE    TOOLS    OF    ANIMALS. 


Tongne  and  claws  of  the  woodpecker.    Digging  tools  of  the  elephaut,  the  hen,  and  the  pig. 

armed  with  sharp  teeth 
pointing  backward,  like 
the  barbs  of  a  fish-hook, 
Here  are,  then,  two  in- 
struments or  tools  to- 
gether. And  the  way 
that  the  woodpecker 
manages  them  is  this :  while  he  is  drilling,  the  two  parts  of  the 
bill  are  closed  together,  making  a  good  wedge-pointed  drill,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  snug  case  for  the  insect-catcher.  As  soon  as  he 
comes  to  an  insect  he  opens  the  drill,  and  pushes  the  barbed  end 
of  his  long  tongue  into  the  insect,  and  draws  him  into  his  mouth. 
As  the  woodpecker  has  to  strike  so  hard  in  drilling,  the  bones 
of  his  skull  are  made  very  heavy  and  strong.  If  this  were  not 
so,  his  drilling  would  jar  his  brain  too  much.  And  another  thing 
is  to  be  observed:  while  he  is  drilling 
he  needs  to  stand  very  firmly.  He  must 
hold  on  tightly  to  the  tree,  or  he  will 
slip  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  drill.  He 
has,  therefore,  such  claws  as  you  see 
here  to  hold  on  with. 

Some  animals  have  tools  to  dig  with.  The  elephant,  you 
know,  has  long,  strong  tusks.  These  he  uses  in  digging  up  roots 
of  different  kinds  from  the  ground  to  eat.  The  hen  di^s  in  a 
small  way  with  the  claws  of  her  feet,  to  find  grains  and  other 
kinds  of  food  that  happen  to  be  mingled  with  the  earth.     The 


pig  can  dig  with  its  snout.     It  does  not  have  much  use  for  this 


THE    TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS. 


117 


The  mole's  ploughing  and  digging  tool. 


His  habitation. 


when  shut  up  in  its  pen  ;  but  let  it  out,  and  see  how  it  will  root, 
as  we  say.  It  does  this  to  find  things  in  the  ground  that  it  can 
eat.  "When  the  pig  runs  wild,  it  roots  to  get  acorns  and  other 
things  that  become  mixed  up  with  the  earth- 

The  mole  has  a  similar  contrivance  to  work  in  the  earth  with. 
This  animal  also  has  heavy  claws  with 
which  it  ploughs  and  digs.  Here  is  a 
figure  showing  the  bones  of  one  of  its 
fore-paws.  They  are  very  heavy  and 
strong,  and  are  worked  by  large  muscles. 
The  claws  on  its  fingers,  you  see,  are  very 
powerful.  The  mole  does  great  execution  with  this  digging  and 
ploughing  machine  in  making  his  tunnels  and  galleries  in  the 
ground. 

The  mole's  habitation  is  a  singular  affair.  It  consists  of  a  large 
circular  room,  with  several  galleries  and  passages.  He  makes  all 
this  in  this  way.  He  first  heaps  a  round  hill  or  mound,  pressing 
the  earth  to  make  it  very  solid  and  firm  ;  he  then  digs  out  his 
round  room,  where  he  lives,  and  the  passages.  You  can  under- 
stand how  he  arranges  these  by 
the  figure.  You  can  see  that 
there  are  two  circular  galleries, 
one  above  the  other,  and  that 
these  are  connected  together  by 
five  passages.  The  circular  room  is  connected  with  the  upper 
gallery  by  three  passages.  It  also,  you  see,  has  a  deep  passage 
out  from  it  at  the  bottom,  which  opens  into  a  passages  that  goes 


118 


THE  TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS. 


How  the  woodchuck  digs. 


How  beavers  build  their  cabins. 


out  from  the  lower  gallery ;  this  passage,  and  another  like  it  on 
the  other  side,  lead  out  into  the  open  air.  I  suppose  that  the  use 
of  all  these  winding  passages  is  to  enable  the  mole  to  keep  out 
of  the  way  of  those  who  want  to  catch  it. 

The  marmot,  or  woodchuck,  as  he  is  commonly  called,  is  a 
great  digger.  He  digs  his  hole  where  he  lives  in  this  way.  He 
loosens  the  dirt  with  his  fore-paws,  using  his  teeth  also  when 
the  earth  is  very  hard,  or  where  any  roots  happen  to  be  in  the 
way.     He  pushes  back  the  dirt  as  he  loosens  it. 

Beavers  are  very  singular  animals.     They  do  not  live  alone, 

but  many  of  them  live  to- 
gether. They  live  in  a  sort  of 
cabin,  which  they  build  with 
branches  of  trees  and  mud, 
the  mud  answering  for  mortar. 
In  gathering  the  branches  they 
often  gnaw  them  off  with  their 
sharp  and  powerful  teeth. 
They  are  great  diggers.  They 
dig  up  the  earth  with  their 
paws  to  use  in  building  their 
cabin. 
The  beavers  build  their  cabin  close  to  a  stream  of  water,  and 
their  entrance  to  it  is  below,  so  that  they  have  to  go  down  under 
water  to  get  to  it ;  and  a  dam  is  built  to  keep  the  water  over  this 
entrance  of  the  proper  height.  If  it  were  not  for  this,  the  door 
to  the  cabin  might  get  closed  up  with  ice  if  the  water  should 


THE   TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS.  119 

The  arrangement  of  the  cabins  and  dams  of  beavers. 

get  low  in  the  stream  during  the  winter.  This  dam  the  beavers 
build  of  branches  of  trees,  and  mud  and  stones.  The  stones  are 
used  to  make  the  branches  stay  down.  In  the  cabin  there  are 
two  rooms :  in  the  upper  one  they  live,  and  in  the  lower  one 
they  stow  their  food.  This  is  the  arrangement  of  these  animals 
for  the  winter.  In  the  summer  they  do  not  live  together  in 
companies,  but  each  one  makes  a  burrow  for  itself.  Every 
autumn  they  come  together,  and  unite  in  building  their  dams 
and  cabins. 

Questions. — Why  does  man  make  tools  ?  Why  do  not  other  animals  make  them  ? 
Do  they  have  tools?  How  is  the  swimming  of  a  fish  like  sculling?  What  does  the 
fish  do  with  his  fins  ?  What  is  said  about  the  bill  of  the  woodpecker?  What  does 
he  drill  for?  Tell  about  his  tongue.  What  is  said  about  the  bones  of  his  head? 
What  about  his  claws  ?  What  is  said  about  the  digging  of  the  elephant — of  the  hen 
— of  the  pig?  How  does  the  mole  dig?  What  is  said  about  his  fore-paws?  De- 
scribe the  arrangement  of  the  mole's  habitation.  How  does  the  woodchuck  dig  ?  Tell 
about  the  beavers.     What  is  the  arrangement  of  the  cabin  ?    What  is  the  dam  for  ? 


120  MORE    ABOUT   THE   TOOLS    OF  ANIMALS. 


The  paw-fly.  The  bee  that  cuts  leaves  so  curiously. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

MORE    ABOUT   THE    TOOLS    OF    ANIMALS. 

Insects  have  various  tools  or  instruments.  There  is  a  fly 
called  the  saw-fly,  because  it  really  has  a  saw.  It  is  a  very  nice 
one,  much  nicer  than  any  saw  that  man  ever  made.  The  fly 
uses  the  saw  to  make  a  place  to  put  its  eggs,  where  they  will  be 
secure.  And  what  is  very  curious,  it  has  a  sort  of  glue  with 
which  it  fastens  the  eggs  in  their  place. 

There  are  some  insects  that  have  cutting  instruments,  which 
will  cut  as  well  as  you  can  with  scissors,  if  not  better.  There  is 
a  bee  that  is  remarkable  in  this  respect.  It  has  also  a  boring 
tool.  Its  nest  is  commonly  in  old,  half-decayed  wood.  It  clears 
out  a  space  in  it  with  its  boring  instrument;  it  then  sets  itself 
to  work  with  its  cutting  instrument  to  cut  out  pieces  of  leaves 
to  line  the  nest  and  make  the  cells  in  it.  These  are  cut  of  dif- 
ferent shapes,  as  they  are  needed,  as  you  may  see  in  the  next 
engraving.  Below  the  leaves  you  see  the  nest  represented.  It 
is  opened  by  taking  off  some  of  the  wood,  and  there  you  see  the 
lining  of  leaves.  Great  pains  is  taken  by  the  bees  in  getting 
each  piece  of  leaf  of  the  right  shape  to  fit  well,  and  the  pieces 
are  very  nicely  fastened  together.* 

*  A  more  full  account  of  the  operations  of  this  little  animal  you  can  find  in  a  book 
published  by  Harper  and  Brothers,  entitled  Natural  History,  by  Uncle  Philip,  which 
I  recommend  to  my  young  readers  as  a  very  interesting  book  about  animals. 


MORE  ABOUT  THE  TOOLS  OF  ANIMALS. 


121 


The  spinning  machinery  of  the  silk-worm  and  the  spider. 


There  are  some  animals 
that  have  machinery  for 
making  things.  All  the 
silk  that  is  used  in  the 
world  is  made  by  worms. 
The  silk-worm  has  a  regu- 
lar set  of  machinery  for 
spinning  silk.  It  winds  it 
up  as  it  spins  it.  Then 
man  unwinds  it,  and  makes 
a  great  variety  of  beau- 
tiful fabrics  with  this  silk 
thread. 

The  spinning  machinery 
of  the  spider  is  much  finer 
than  that  of  the  silk-worm. 
The  thread  which  he  spins 
is  made  up  of  a  multitude  of  threads,  each  one  of  these  coming 
out  from  an  exceedingly  small  hole  in  the  spider's  body.  You 
know  that  there  is  a  large  number  of  fibres  or  threads  in  a  rope. 
So  it  is  with  the  spider's  rope,  for  his  thread  that  you  see,  small 
as  it  is,  is  a  rope  to  him.  It  is  a  rope  that  he  walks  on  like  a 
rope-dancer;  and  you  may  sometimes  see  him  swinging  upon  it. 
Sometimes,  too,  he  lets  himself  down  from  some  height,  spin- 
ning the  rope  that  holds  him  as  he  goes  dowrn.  When  he  does 
this  his  spinning  machine  must  work  very  briskly. 

The  wasp  has  a  paper  factory  in  him.     He  makes  his  paper 


122  MOKE    ABOUT   THE   TOOLS    OF    ANIMALS. 

Paper-making  of  the  wasp.  Teeth.  Pumps  of  some  animals. 

out  of  fibres  of  wood,  which  he  picks  off,  I  suppose  with  his 
teeth,  and  gathers  them  into  a  bundle.  lie  makes  this  into  a 
soft  pulp  in  some  way  ;  then,  from  this,  he  makes  the  paper  with 
which  he  builds  his  nest.  It  is  very  much,  you  know,  like  the 
common  brown  paper  that  man  makes.  The  wasps  work  in 
companies,  and  though  each  one  can  make  but  little  paper,  they 
all  together  make  their  nest  in  a  very  little  time.  The  pulp 
from  which  they  make  their  paper  is  very  much  like  the  pulp 
from  which  man  makes  paper,  and  which  you  may  see  any  time 
in  the  large  tubs  or  vats  of  a  paper  factory.  This  pulp  is  gener- 
ally made  from  rags  ground  up  fine,  but  lately  wood  has  been 
much  used.  Perhaps  the  hint  was  taken  from  the  wasps,  who 
were  the  earliest  paper-makers  in  the  world. 

Animals  cannot  use  knives  and  forks,  as  we  do,  in  dividing  up 
their  food.  They  therefore  have  instruments  given  them  which 
do  this  very  well.  Those  long,  sharp  teeth  that  dogs,  cats,  tigers, 
etc.,  have,  answer  to  tear  to  pieces  the  flesh  they  eat,  as  thor- 
oughly as  we  can  cut  it  up.  We  do  not  need  such  teeth,  because 
with  inst?uments  contrived  by  man's  mind  for  his  hands  to  use 
we  cut  up  the  food  sufficiently. 

I  have  told  you  that  the  elephant  can  draw  up  water  into  his 
trunk.  His  trunk  is  therefore  like  the  tube  with  which  we  suck 
up  water  or  any  liquid.  And  it  is  like  a  pump  too,  for,  as  I 
shall  show  you  in  Part  Third,  water  is  raised  in  the  pump  just 
as  it  is  in  a  tube  when  we  suck  through  it.  It  is  with  a  pump 
something  like  the  elephant's  that  many  insects  get  the  honey 
from  the  flowers.     This  pump  is  called  a  proboscis.     It  is  with 


MOKE    ABOUT  THE   TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS. 


123 


The  proboscis  in  some  insects. 


Cat's  tongue  a  cnrry-comb. 


such  an  instrument  that  the  mosquito  sucks  up  your  blood.  At 
the  end  of  his  pump  he  has  something  with  which  he  pierces  a 
hole  in  your  skin,  and  then  he  pumps  your  blood  up  into  his 
stomach.  In  some  insects  the  proboscis  is  very  long,  as  you  see 
here.     This  is  hollow,  and  with  it  the  insect  sucks  up  the  honey 


from  very  deep  flowers,  without  being  obliged  to  go  to  the  bot- 
tom of  them. 

The  proboscis  is  commonly  coiled  up  when 
it  is  not  in  use.  Here  is  the  proboscis  of  a 
butterfly  coiled  up.  The  two  long  things 
above  it  are  feelers. 

The  tongue  of  a  cat  is  a  singular  instru- 
ment. It  is  her  curry-comb.  For  this  pur- 
pose it  is  rough,  as  you  will  find  if  you  feel  it.  When  she  cleans 
herself  so  industriously,  she  gets  off  the  dirt  and  smooths  her 
coat  just  as  the  hostler  cleans  and  smooths  the  horse's  coat  with 
the  curry-comb.     Her  head  she  cannot  reach  with  her  tongue, 


124 


MORE    ABOUT   THE    TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS. 


How  the  heron  catches  fish. 


The  tailor-bird. 


and  so  she  has  to  make  her  fore -paws  answer  the  purpose  in- 
stead. 

There  are  some  birds  that  live  on  fishes.  They  have  instru- 
ments, therefore,  purposely  for 
catching  them.  The  heron  is  a 
bird  of  this  kind.  He  manages 
in  this  way :  when  the  light  is 
dim,  either  at  dawn  or  when 
there  is  moonlight,  it  is  his  time 
for  going  a -fishing.  He  will 
stand,  as  you  see  him  here,  in 
shallow  water,  so  stiff  and  so 
still  that  he  might  be  mistaken 
for  a  stump  of  a  tree  or  some- 
thing else.  He  is  looking  stead- 
ily and  patiently  down  into  the 
water,  and  the   moment  a  fish 


1:^ 


comes  along,  down  goes  his 
sharp  bill,  and  off  he  flies  to  his  nest  with  his  prey.  The  plumes 
of  this  singular  bird  are  beautiful,  and  are  very  highly  prized  as 
ornaments. 

There  is  one  bird  that  lives  chiefly  on  oysters.  It  has  a  bill, 
therefore,  with  which  it  can  open  an  oyster-shell  as  skilfully  as 
an  oysterman  can  with  his  knife. 

Some  birds  can  sew  very  well  with  their  beaks  and  feet.  There 
is  one  bird  that  sews  so  well  that  it  is  called  the  tailor-bird.  On 
the  opposite  page  we  see  its  nest  hid  in  leaves  which  it  has  sewed 


MOKE   ABOUT   THE   TOOLS    OF    ANIMALS. 


125 


The  wingless  bird. 


together.  It  does  this  with  thread  which  it  makes 
itself.  It  gets  cotton  from  the  cotton-plant,  and 
with  its  long,  delicate  bill  and  little  feet  spins  it 
into  a  thread.  It  then  pierces  the  holes  through 
the  leaves  with  its  bill,  and,  passing  the  thread 
through  the  holes,  sews  them  together.  I  be- 
lieve that  in  getting  the  thread  through  the 
holes  it  uses  both  its  bill  and  its  feet. 

Here  is  a  very  strange-looking  bird.  It  has  no 
wings.  It  has  a 
very  long  bill, 
which  it  uses 
in  gathering  its 
food,which  con- 
sists of  snails, 
insects,  and 
worms.  Ileuses 
his  bill  in  another  way.  He 
often,  in  resting,  places  the  tip 
of  his  bill  on  the  ground,  and 
thus  makes  the  same  use  of  his 
bill  that  an  old  man  does  of  his 
cane  when  he  stands  leaning 
upon  it. 

There  is  a  fish  that  has  a  singular  instrument.  It  is  a  squirt- 
gun  for  shooting  insects.  It  can  shoot  them  not  only  when  they 
are  still,  but  when  they  are  flying.     It  watches  them  as  they 


126  MORE   ABOUT   THE   TOOLS    OF   ANIMALS. 

The  fish  that  shoots  insects. 

are  flying  over  the  water,  and  hits  one  of  them,  whenever  it 
can  get  a  chance,  with  a  fine  stream  of  water  from  its  little 
gun.  The  insect,  stunned  with  the  blow,  falls  into  the  water, 
and  the  fish  eats  it. 

I  could  give  you  a  great  many  more  examples  of  the  different 
tools  that  we  find  in  animals,  but  these  are  sufficient.  You  can 
observe  other  examples  yourselves  as  you  look  at  different  ani- 
mals. 

Questions. — What  is- said  about  the  saw-fly?  Tell  about  the  boring  and  cutting 
instruments  of  a  certain  kind  of  bee.  What  is  said  about  silk-worms  ?  What  about 
spiders  ?  What  about  wasps  ?  Why  do  some  animals  have  such  long,  sharp  teeth  ? 
What  kind  of  machine  is  an  elephant's  trunk?  What  is  the  proboscis  of  an  insect  ? 
How  many  instruments  are  there  together  in  his  tongue?  What  is  said  about  the 
cat's  tongue?  Tell  about  the  heron.  Tell  about  the  bird  that  lives  on  oysters. 
What  is  told  about  the  tailor-bird  ?  Tell  about  the  bird  that  has  no  wings.  Tell 
about  the  fish  that  shoots  insects  with  water. 


INSTRUMENTS    OF   DEFENCE   AND   ATTACK.  127 


Fighting  instruments  of  animals.  Why.man  has  none  of  them. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

INSTRUMENTS    OF    DEFENCE   AND   ATTACK. 

Animals  have  various  instruments  for  defending  themselves. 
Some  have  claws,  some  horns,  some  hoofs,  some  spurs  and  beaks, 
some  powerful  teeth,  and  some  stings.  These  they  use  to  de- 
fend themselves  when  attacked. 

But  man  has  none  of  these  things.  Why  is  this?  It  is  be- 
cause, as  I  have  told  you  about  tools,  with  his  mind  he  can  con- 
trive instruments  of  defence,  and  with  his  hands  he  can  use  them. 
If  men  could  not  contrive  and  use  such  things  as  spears  and 
swords  and  guns  they  would  stand  a  poor  chance  with  some  of 
the  animals  if  obliged  to  contend  with  them.  A  lion  or  tiger, 
you  know,  could  tear  the  stoutest  man  in  pieces  if  he  had  noth- 
ing in  his  hands  to  defend  himself. 

It  would  be  well  if  men  would  use  the  fighting  instruments 
which  they  make  only  for  defending  themselves.  But  they  often 
use  them  in  attacking  others,  just  as  beasts  do  their  weapons, 
and  sometimes  they  even  use  their  hands  and  teeth  and  nails  in 
the  same  way  that  beasts  do.  Hands  were  made  for  useful  work 
and  innocent  play  ;  but  they  are  often  used  to  strike  with. 
Teeth  are  given  to  us  to  eat  with  ,*  but  children,  and  even  men 
sometimes,  bite  with  them  like  an  angry  beast.  Nails  are  given 
us  for  various  useful  purposes,  but  I  have  known  children  to  use 
them  in  fighting,  as  beasts  do  their  claws  and  spurs. 


128 


INSTRUMENTS    OF    DEFENCE    AND    ATTACK. 


Claw  and  beak  of  a  cruel  bird. 


The  vulture  and  the  lamb. 


The  fighting  instruments  of  some  birds  are  very  powerful. 
Here  are  a  claw  and  a  beak  of  a  very 
cruel  bird.  How  fast  this  claw  would 
hold  the  victim,  and  how  would  this 
beak  tear  it  in  pieces  !  Very  differ- 
ent are  they  from  the  slender  claws 
and  the  light  beak  of  such  birds  as 
the  canary. 

Here  is  a  very  rapacious  bird,  the  vulture.     He  is  on  a  rock, 


and  has  under  his  feet  a  lamb  which  he  found  in  the  valley  be- 
low. It  had,  perhaps,  wandered  from  the  flock,  and,  as  it  was 
feeding,  not  thinking  of  danger,  the  vulture  espied  it.  Swiftly 
diving  down,  he  caught  it  with  his  strong  claws  and  brought  it 


INSTRUMENTS    OF    DEFENCE    AND    ATTACK. 


129 


The  bill  of  the  toucan. 


How  it  trims  its  tail. 


np  here.     You  see  what  a  beak  he  has  to  tear  the  lamb  in 
pieces,  that  he  may  devour  it. 

The  toucan,  which  you  see  here,  has  a  larger  bill  than  most 
other  birds.  It  uses  it 
in  crashing  and  tearing 
its  food,  which  consists 
of  fruits,  mice,  and 
small  birds.  Its  edges 
are  toothed  somewhat 
like  a  saw,  adapting  it 
to  tear  in  pieces  the  lit- 
tle animals  which  this 
bird  feeds  on.  But 
it  can  use  its  bill  also 
for  another  purpose. 
It  is  a  powerful  in- 
strument of  defence 
in  fighting  off  the  an- 
imals that  attack  it. 
The  toucan  makes  its 
nest  in  a  hole  of  a  tree,  which  it  digs  out  with  its  bill,  if  it 
does  not  readily  find  one  already  made ;  and  there  it  sits,  keep- 
ing off  all  intruders  with  its  big  beak.  The  mischievous  mon- 
keys are  its  worst  enemies;  but,  if  they  get  a  blow  from  that 
beak,  they  are  very  careful  to  keep  out  of  the  wTay  of  it  after- 
wards. When  the  toucan  sleeps,  it  manages  to  cover  up  this 
large  bill  with  its  feathers,  and  so  it  looks  as  if  it  was  nothing 

18 


130  INSTRUMENTS    OF    DEFENCE    AND   ATTACK. 

Tue  cat's  paw  and  its  cushions.  Horned  animals. 

but  a  great  ball  of  feathers.  There  is  one  curious  use  which  it 
makes  of  its  bill:  it  uses  it  to  trim  its  tail,  cutting  its  feathers 
as  precisely  as  a  pair  of  scissors  would.  It  takes  great  care 
in  doing  this,  evidently  thinking  that  it  is  important  to  its 
beauty.  It  waits  till  its  tail  is  full  grown  before  it  begins  to 
trim  it. 

The  claws  of  the  cat  hold  the  rat  very  fast,  while  her  long, 
sharp  teeth  tear  its  flesh,  and  pull  even  its  bones  apart.  If  yon 
see  a  cat  do  this,  you  will  get  some  idea  of  the  way  in  which  a 
lion  or  tiger  tears  in  pieces  any  animal.  As  your  cat  lies  quietly 
purring  in  your  lap,  look  at  her  paws.  The  claws  are  all  con- 
cealed, and  the  paw,  with  its  cushions,  seems  a  very  gentle, 
peaceable  thing;  but  awaken  her  and  let  her  play  with  a 
string,  and  as  she  tries  to  catch  it  with  her  paw,  the  claws  now 
thrust  out  make  it  look  like  a  powerful  weapon,  as  it  really  is 
in  the  eyes  of  rats  and  mice.  There  are  muscles  that  work 
those  claws  when  the  cat's  mind  tells  them  to  do  it.  When  the 
claws  are  not  thrust  out  these  muscles  are  quiet,  but  they  are 
ever  ready  to  act  when  a  message  comes  to  them  from  the 
brain. 

Did  you  ever  think  what  the  use  is  of  those  springy  cushions  in 
the  cat's  foot  ?  They  are  to  keep  her  from  being  jarred  when  she 
jumps  down  from  a  considerable  height,  as  she  often  does.  Other 
animals  that  jump  have  them.  There  is  another  use  for  these  cush- 
ions. They  are  of  assistance  to  animals  in  catching  their  prey. 
If  the  cat  had  hard,  horny  feet,  as  she  went  pattering  around 
the  rats  and  mice  would  take  the  alarm  and  get  out  of  the  way. 


INSTRUMENTS    OF   DEFENCE   AND   ATTACK. 


131 


The  horns  of  the  koodoo. 


The  sword-fish. 


Some  animals  have 
horns  which  they  use 
in  attack  and  defence, 
and  very  powerful 
weapons  they  are  in 
some  cases.  Animals 
that  have  them  often 
defend  themselves  suc- 
cessfully against  the  at- 
tacks of  lions,  tigers, 
etc.,  that  are  so  power-  I 
ful  with  their  teeth  and  3 
claws.  They  gore  with 
them.  They  can  toss 
up  quite  a  large  animal 
into  the  air  with  them. 
In  this  animal  (called 
the  koodoo)  they  are  nearly  three  feet  long.  You  see  that  they 
have  a  beautiful  spiral  shape ;  indeed,  the  whole  animal  is  very 
handsome.  It  lives  in  South  Africa,  in  the  woods  at  the  side 
of  rivers.  You  might  suppose  that  it  would  be  rather  diffi- 
cult to  get  about  among  the  trees  and  bushes  with  such  long 
horns;  but  the  koodoo  manages  to  do  this  very  well  by 
throwing  his  head  back  and  letting  his  horns  rest  on  his  shoul- 
ders. 

Here  is  a  drawing  of  a  sword-fish.     Its  sword  is  made  of  bone, 
and  it  is  so  very  strong   that  it  has  been  known  to  be  run 


132 


INSTRUMENTS    OF    DEFENCE    AND    ATTACK. 


The  saw-fish. 


The  porcupine. 


77 


through  the  bot- 
torn  of  a  ship. 
In  the  British 
Museum  there  is 
a  piece  of  the 
bottom  of  a  ship 
with  one  of  these 
swords  ru  n 
through  it,  and  broken  short  off.  The  fish  must  have  died  at 
once,  for  such  a  blow  must  have  dashed  his  brains  out,  as  we 
say.  This  sword  must  be  a  powerful  weapon  of  defence  or  at- 
tack in  the  fights  of  this  fish  with  other  animals. 

Here  is  a  fish 
that  has  a  saw  in- 
stead of  a  sword. 
The  teeth,  you  see, 
are  on  both  sides 
of  the  saw.  This 
fish  is  very  large, 
and  uses  this  weap- 
on with  great  effect  in  its  fights  with  whales  and  other  mon- 
sters of  the  deep.  It  sometimes,  very  foolishly,  pushes  its  saw 
into  the  bottom  of  a  ship,  as  the  sword-fish  does  his  sword. 

There  are  some  animals  that  have  very  singular  instruments 
of  defence.  The  porcupine  is  one.  It  is  covered  with  two 
kinds  of  quills.  Those  of  one  kind  are  long,  slender,  and  curved. 
The  others  are  short,  straight,  very  stout,  and  have  a  sharp 


INSTRUMENTS   OF    DEFENCE    AND   ATTACK. 


133 


What  the  porcupine  does  with  its  quills 


The  ink-bag  of  the  cuttle-fish. 


point.    Whenever  the 

porcupine     is     chased 

by    any    animal,    and 

finds   that   he   cannot 

escape  by  running,  he 

stops   and  bristles    up 

all  his  quills,   as   you 

see     in     the     picture 

here  given.     He  then 

backs,    so      that     the 

short,    sharp    quills 

may     stick    into     the 

animal  that  pursues  him.     It  has  been  said  that  he  shoots  his 

quills  at  any  one  that  attacks  him;    but  this  is  not  so.     The 

error  came  from  the  fact  that,   if   any  of  the    quills  happen 

to  be  a  little  loose,  they  fall  out  or  stick  into  the  flesh  of  his 

adversary. 

The  octopus  has  a  curious  way  of  escaping  from  those  fishes 
that  attack  him.  He  is  a  strangely-shaped  animal,  as  you  see 
on  the  following  page.  He  has  eight  long  arms,  and  the  little 
spots  that  you  see  on  these  are  suckers,  with  which  he  can  stick 
to  a  rock,  or  can  hold  tightly  any  fish  or  shell  that  he  catches. 
This  queer-looking  animal  has  inside  of  him  a  bag  filled  with  a 
dark  fluid  like  ink.  This  he  uses  as  a  means  of  defence  in  this 
way:  if  he  is  chased  by  a  fish  larger  than  he  is,  he  empties  his 
ink-bag  in  the  water,  and  thus  makes  such  a  cloud  that  it  blinds 
his  pursuer,  and  then  the  cuttle-fish  very  easily  gets  out  of  the  way. 


134 


INSTRUMENTS    OF    DEFENCE    AND    ATTACK. 


The  pens  and  ink. 


[ndian  ink. 


We    might   say    of 

these     animals,    they 

carry  with  them  pens 

w>  ^^     /    and    ink.      They   cer- 

[         ^^^^^^^m  /m^J~  \  tainly  do  have  ink,  as 

■  we  have  seen.  Some 
of  you  may  have  seen 
Indian  ink,  that  has 
heen  pricked  into  the 
hand  or  arm  of  some 
idle  boy,  that  foolish- 
ly spent  his  time  in 
doing  what  he  will 
always  regret.  It  is  a  mark  that  can  never  be  removed  ;  and 
many  a  grown  man  has  wished  he  could  take  out  such  a  useless 
mark.  It  is  a  custom  belonging  to  savages,  and  boys  when 
they  grow  to  be  men  become  ashamed  to  show  such  marks. 

Indian  ink  is  the  dried  black  fluid  that  is  found  in  the  blad- 
ders of  cuttle-fishes  and  octopuses.  It  is  of  great  use  in  water- 
color  painting  and  sepia  drawings.  The  pen  is  the  only  hard 
part  of  consequence  in  the  cuttles,  excepting  their  beaks,  which 
resemble  those  of  a  parrot.  The  color  of  the  latter  is  a  chest- 
nut. In  some,  as  the  common  squid,  such  as  those  found  on 
our  sea-shores,  the  pen  lies  along  the  body,  just  under  the  back. 
If  you  chance  to  see  one  on  the  beach,  and  you  open  it  by  cut- 
ting along  the  back,  you  will  find  it  looking  like  isinglass,  and 
shaped  like  a  goose-quill.     It  looks  just  like  a  quill  pen  ;  and  if 


INSTRUMENTS  OF  DEFENCE  AND  ATTACK.         135 

Poulpes.  Giant  squids. 

you  did  not  know  that  it  was  natural  it  would  be  hard  to  believe 
it  is  not  made  artificially.  So  it  is  not  strange  to  say  this  creature 
has  a  pen  and  ink.  The  ink  of  our  common  squid  is  very  black, 
and  when  mixed  with  water  is  a  very  good  writing-ink ;  and  is 
good  for  drawing.  The  bladder,  which  holds  the  ink,  inside 
the  squid,  may  be  cut  out,  and  the  whole  dried  for  future  use. 

It  is  only  a  few  years  since  the  great  squids  or  cuttle-fishes 
were  found.  Before  that,  the  largest  known  octopuses  were 
thought  to  be  about  two  feet  in  length,  or  extent  of  arms.  Victor 
Hugo,  a  French  writer,  described  one  which  measured  about  three 
feet.  It  was  said  to  be  native  to  the  shores  of  France,  on  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  People  thought  this  story  was  not  true,  but 
the  discovery  of  much  larger  ones  proves  the  truth  of  the  French 
tale.     They  are  called  poulpes  in  Europe. 

In  the  waters  of  the  Grand  Banks,  near  Nova  Scotia, 
where  so  many  cod-fishes  are  taken,  the  giant  squids  were  dis- 
covered. The  largest  measured,  in  its  body,  twenty  feet  in 
length.  The  two  tentacles,  or  feelers,  measured  sixty  feet  more. 
The  ink-bag  of  these  creatures  is  very  large.  Whales,  the  kind 
without  teeth,  feed  on  the  soft  animals  of  the  sea,  as  they  can- 
not crush  such  as  have  bones,  like  fishes.  The  squids,  therefore, 
are  eagerly  chased  by  the  whales.  We  see  how  nature  has  pro- 
vided these  soft  and  otherwise  defenceless  creatures  with  means 
to  baffle  their  enemies. 

The  instant  danger  comes  the  squid,  as  you  have  seen  the  oc- 
topus does,  throws  out  his  ink,  which  makes  a  thick  cloud  in 
water  so  dark  and  so  disagreeable  the  enemy  stops,  in  terror, 
while  the  squid  makes  good  his  escape. 


130 


INSTRUMENTS   OF   DEFENCE   AND   ATTACK. 


The  torpedo. 


The  electrical  eel. 


This  singularly-formed  fish,  the  torpedo,  has  two  electrical  bat- 
teries— that  is,  ma- 
chines for  making  w  -' 
electricity  or  light- 
ning; and  it  can 
give  a  shock  when 
it  pleases.  If  the 
fish  is  a  large  one, 
it  can  give  a  shock 
powerful  enough  to 
knock  a  man  down. 
It  can  disable,  of 
course,  almost  any 
fish  that  attempts 
to    fight    with   it, 

and  it  probably  uses  its  battery  also  to 
that  it  devours. 


overcome  the  animals 

Here  is  an  eel,  call- 
ed the  electrical  eel, 
which  has  the  same 
power,  and  uses  it  for 
the  same  purposes.  A 
sailor  was  once  knock- 
ed down  by  a  shock 
from  one  of  these  eels, 
and  it  was  some  time 


before  he  recovered  his  senses. 


INSTRUMENTS    OF   DEFENCE    AND   ATTACK. 


137 


The  armor  of  turtles. 


The  different  kinds  of  turtles,  while  they  have  no  great  means 
of  attack,  have  most  extraordinary  means  of  defence.  They  have 
a  complete  suit  of  thick,  bony  armor.  Most  kinds  of  turtles  can 
draw  in  their  heads  and 

limbs  out  of  sight,  and  rr''':^-'"~  ;',- -■■:-•" ; ~&0.:-~.. 

some  can  shut  up  their 
armor  as  tight  as  a  box, 
and  so  be  secure  against 
almost  any  attack.  This 
is  a  picture  of  the  green 
turtle,  which  sometimes 
grows  so  large  as  to  weigh 
as  much  as  three  or  four 
men.  It  is  found  in  most 
of  the  islands  of  the  East 
and    West    Indies.      Its 

flesh  is  considered  a  great  luxury.  The  beautiful  tortoise-shell, 
from  which  combs  are  made,  is  obtained  from  this  armor  of 
some  kinds  of  turtles.  The  green  and  loggerhead  turtles  are 
very  abundant  on  the  coast  of  Florida.  In  summer,  during 
moonlight  nights,  they  go  ashore  on  the  islands  to  lay  their  eggs. 
They  creep  slowly  up  above  high-water  mark,  and  then  dig,  with 
their  hind-feet,  a  deep  hole;  here  they  deposit  their  eggs,  several 
hundred  in  number,  at  one  time.  So  intent  is  the  female  to 
finish  her  work,  one  may  sit  on  her  back  until  she  has  completed 
her  task.  The  hole  is  then  covered  in  by  the  alternate  sweeping 
of  the  sand  by  each  hind-leg. 


138  INSTRUMENTS    OF   DEFENCE    AND    ATTACK. 

The  leather-back  turtle.  Questions. 

The  eggs  are  good  for  food ;  and  the  meat  of  the  turtle  is 
also  good. 

The  largest  known  turtle  is  the  leather-back,  now  seen  fre- 
quently in  the  ocean  of  our  Atlantic  coast.  Its  extreme  length 
is  nine  feet.     Its  color  is  black. 

Questions. — What  are  some  of  the  instruments  of  defence  and  attack  that  animals 
have?  Why  has  man  none  of  these?  What  is  the  use  which  men  ought  to  make 
of  the  weapons  which  they  contrive?  How  are  hands,  teeth,  and  nails  often  im- 
properly used?  What  are  the  fighting  instruments  of  birds?  Tell  about  the  vul- 
ture. Tell  the  different  uses  of  the  large  bill  of  the  toucan.  What  are  the  weapons 
of  the  cat?  What  is  said  about  the  muscles  of  her  claws?  Of  what  use  are  the 
cushions  on  her  feet?  Tell  about  the  koodoo.  Tell  about  the  sword-fish  and  about 
the  saw-fish?  What  is  said  about  the  porcupine?  What  about  the  octopus?  What 
may  be  said  of  the  squids?  What  is  Indian  ink  ?  What  is  the  result  of  pricking  ink 
into  the  flesh?  To  whom  does  the  custom  of  pricking  ink  into  the  flesh  belong  to? 
For  what  is  Indian  ink  used?  What  is  the  only  hard  portion  of  a  squid  or  cuttle- 
fish, excepting  the  beaks?  What  do  the  beaks  resemble  ?  What  is  the  situation  of 
the  bone  or  isinglass  ?  What  is  the  shape  of  the  bone?  What  is  said  of  the  ink  of 
our  common  squid?  What  can  be  done  with  the  bladder  of  ink  when  cut  out?  How 
large  were  the  squids  known  before  the  giant  ones  were  discovered?  What  of  Victor 
Hugo's  story  of  a  squid  ?  What  were  these  creatures  called  in  France?  Where  were 
the  giant  squids  found  ?  How  much  did  the  largest  measure  in  length  of  body  ?  How 
much  did  the  tentacles  measure  ?  What  creatures  feed  on  the  squids?  Why  are  these 
soft  animals  more  suitable  for  the  great  creatures'  food?  What  does  the  squid  do 
when  danger  comes  to  him  ?  What  about  the  torpedo  and  the  electrical  eel  ?  What 
about  the  turtles?  What  turtles  are  abundant  on  the  coast  of  Florida?  When  do 
these  great  reptiles  go  on  shore  to  lay  their  eggs  ?  Describe  the  way  they  prepare  to 
lay.  How  many  eggs  do  they  lay  ?  What  are  the  eggs  useful  for  ?  Of  what  use  is 
the  meat  of  these  turtles?  What  is  the  largest  known  turtle?  Where  is  it  found? 
How  much  is  its  length  ? 


WINGS.  139 


Bones  of  a  bird's  wing  like  the  bones  of  the  arm  and  hand.      Why  wings  are  so  large. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

WINGS. 

Birds  walk  upon  two  legs  as  we  do ;  but,  instead  of  such 
hands  as  we  have,  they  have  hands  made  for  the  purpose  of  lift- 
ing them  up  ill  the  air.  The  bones  in  a  bird's  wing  are  very 
much  like  the  bones  in  our  arms  and  hands;  but  they  make  a 
frame-work  for  the  feathers  of  the  wing  to  spread  out  from. 
The  bones  that  go  out  almost  to  the  very  end  of  the  wing  are 
like  the  bones  of  our  fingers,  only  they  are  much  longer. 

A  bird's  wing,  when  it  is  stretched  out,  is  a  very  large  thing. 
It  needs  to  be  large  to  do  its  work  well.  A  bird  could  not  fly 
with  small  wings.  You  know  that  by  trying  very  hard  you 
jump  up  into  the  air  a  very  little  way.  But  see,  the  bird  goes 
up  very  easily  as  high  as  it  pleases,  and  does  not  seem  to  be  tired. 
This  is  because  its  wings  spread  out  so  broadly. 

The  reason  that  birds  need  such  large  wings  is  this.  As  the 
bird  rises  by  pressing  upon  the  air,  it  must  press  on  a  good  deal 
of  air  to  do  this.  If  it  pressed  upon  ou\j  a  little  air  it  could  not 
rise  at  all,  because  the  air  gets  out  of  the  way  so  easily  when  it 
is  pressed  upon.  Swimming  is  flying  in  the  water ;  and,  as  water 
when  pressed  does  not  get  out  of  the  way  as  easily  as  air  does, 
the  tail  and  fins,  with  which  fishes  swim,  do  not  need  to  be  as 
large  as  the  wings  of  birds.  For  the  same  reason,  hands  and  feet 
answer  very  well  for  us  to  swim  with,  though  we  cannot  fly 


140 


WINGS. 


Win<'8  of  the  condor 


Muscles  that  work  the  wings  of  hirds. 


with  them.     I  shall  tell  you  more  particularly  about  this  in  Part 
Third. 

Here  is  a  very  large 
bird,  the  condor.  To 
lift  such  a  heavy  body 
as  he  has  up  into  the 
air  must  require  very 
large  wings,  and  you 
see  that  he  has  them. 

Now,  to  work   such 

broad   wings,  the   bird 

has  very  stout  muscles. 

You    know    how    the 

b--  $>F?W  ^H   breast  of  a  bird  stands 

out.  You  see  it  here 
in  the  condor.  This  is 
because  the  muscles 
with  which  it  works  its 
wings  are  there.  You 
can  see  that  this  is  the  reason,  when  a  bird  is  cooked.  The 
meat,  you  know,  is  very  thick  on  the  breast-bone — thicker  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  body.  If  we  had  as  large  muscles  on 
our  breast-bones  we  should  look  very  strange.  But  we  do  not 
need  such  large  muscles  to  work  our  arms  as  birds  do  to  work 
their  wings. 

A  man  could  not  fly  if  he  had  wings  fixed  on  to  his  arms.     It 
has  been  tried.     I  knew  a  man  once  who  made  something  like 


WINGS. 


141 


Why  men  cannot  fly. 


Short  winajs. 


The  ostrich. 


wings  for  himself.  After  he  had  made  them,  he  went  up  on  to 
the  roof  of  a  shed  to  try  them.  He  jumped  off  and  flapped  his 
wings,  but  down  he  came  about  as  soon  as  if  he  had  no  wings, 
and  he  was  so  much  bruised  that  lie  was  not  disposed  to  try  the 
experiment  again.  Now  why  could  he  not  fly  ?  It  was  not  for 
want  of  wings.  There  the  wings  were,  and  he  had  made  them 
right,  for  he  had  shaped 
them  like  the  wings  of  birds. 
They  were  large  enough  and 
light  enough  ;  the  difficulty 
was,  that  the  muscles  of  his 
arms  were  not  strong  enough 
to  work  them  well.  They 
were  arm-muscles  and  not 
wing-muscles.  A  man  can- 
not be  like  a  bird  merely 
by  having  wings.  He  must 
have  a  bird's  flying  muscles, 
or  he  cannot  fly. 

Different  birds  have  wings 
of  different  sizes.  Those 
that  fly  very  far  and  swiftly 
have  the  largest  wings.  The 
wings  of  the  hen  are  not 
large  enough  to  carry  her 
far  up  into  the  air.  The 
most  that  she  can  do  is  to 


142 


WINGS. 


The  beautiful  motions  of  birds. 


The  swallow. 


The  humming-bird. 


fly  over  a  very  high  fence;  and  if  her  wings  are  partly  cut  off, 
or  cropped,  as  it  is  called,  she  cannot  even  do  that.  There  arc 
some  birds  that  do  not  use  their  wings  in  flying.  The  ostrich, 
represented  on  the  previous  page,  is  a  great  runner.     He  cannot 


flv,  but 


Ins  win^rs  h 


help  him  some  in  running. 


In  what  way  the  wings  act  in  raising  birds  and  carrying  them 
along  I  will  explain  to  you  in  Part  Third,  when  I  come  to  tell 
you  about  the  air. 

How  beautiful  are  the  motions  of  many  of  the  birds  as  they 


fly  in  the 


air ! 


How  easily  and  gracefully  their  wings  work! 


Sec  that  bird  as  it  goes  up  and  up ;  and  now  see  it  as  it  makes  a 
turn,  and  comes  down  so  swiftly  on  its  outstretched  wings,  tak- 
ing a  beautiful  sweep  off  at  a  distance;  and  then  up  it  goes 
again  to  come  down,  in  the  same  way  that  boys  do  when  they 
travel  up  a  long  hill  to  slide  down  so  swiftly  on  their  sleds.  The 
..,._.  swallow,   as    he    has    this 

tine  sport,  is,  at  the  same 


time,  getting 


Ins 


As  he  skims  along  close 
to  the  ground  or  the  wa- 
ter, quick  as  thought  he 
catches  any  unlucky  fly 
that  happens  to  be  in  his 
way. 

Especially  beautiful  are 
the  motions  of  the  humming-bird.  See  him  as  he  stops  before 
some  flower,  fluttering  on  his  wings,  or  as  he  darts  with  them 


WINGS.  143 


The  structure  of  feathers.  The  delicacy  of  a  bat's  wing-. 

from  one  flower  to'  another.  The  muscles  of  his  wings  are  very 
nimble  workmen.  Our  muscles  can  make  no  motions  as  quick 
as  these. 

Did  yon  ever  examine  a  feather  from  a  bird's  wing  to  see 
what  a  curiously-made  thing  it  is?  The  quill  part  of  it  is  very 
strong,  but,  at  the  same  time,  light.  The  plume  or  feather  part 
is  quite  strong  also.  It  is  made  up  of  a  great  many  very  thin 
and  delicate  flat  leaves,  as  we  may  call  them,  which  are  locked 
together  curiously  by  fine  teeth  on  their  edges.  If  you  separate 
them  they  soon  come  together  again,  and  are  locked  as  fast  as 
ever.  You  can  see  the  teeth  by  which  they  hold  on  to  each 
other  very  well  with  a  common  microscope. 

~No  wronder  that  the  bat  can  fly  so  swiftly  with  such  very 
broad  and  light  wings  as  he  has.     Did  you  ever  observe  how  a 

bat's  wino-  is  made?     It  ,^> 

•  j       i        —  ***£- 

is  a  very  curious  and  real- 
ly beautiful  thing.  It  is 
an  exceedingly  fine,  thin 
skin,  on  a  frame- work  of 
long,  slender  bones.  These 
are  to  it  what  sticks  of 
whalebone  are  to  an  um- 
brella ;  and  the  wings  can 
be  folded  up  somewhat  as 
an  umbrella  is.  This  is 
done  whenever  the  bat  is 
not  flying.    When  it  is  on 


144 


WINGS. 


The  vampire  bat. 


Locust's  wing. 


Wing  of  the  katydid. 


the  ground  it  is  very  awkward  in  its  movements.  It  cannot  get 
a  start  to  fly,  and  so  it  pushes  itself  along  with  its  hind-feet,  at 
the  same  time  pulling  by  the  hooks  in  its  wings,  which  it  puts 
forward,  first  one  and  then  the  other,  hooking  them  into  the 
ground.  It  never  likes  to  get  upon  the  ground,  and  it  takes 
its  rest  always,  as  you  see  represented  on  the  previous  page,  by 
hanging  itself  up  by  the  two  hooks  in  its  wings. 

Here  is  a  picture  of 


^ 


the  vampire  bat,  a  na- 
tive of  South  America, 
that  lives  by  sucking 
the  blood  of  animals 
when  they  are  asleep. 
Nothing  is  more  deli- 
cate than  the  wings  of 
insects.  They  are  like 
gauze ;  but  they  have 
a  frame-work  that 
makes  them  quite  firm, 
just  as  leaves  are  firm 

from  the  ribs  that  are  in  them.     Here  is  a  drawing  of  the  wing 

of  a  locust.     But  you  can  get  no  idea 

of  the  beauty  of  insects'  wings  from 

such   drawings.      You   must   examine 

the  wings  themselves.     Even  the  wing 

of  a  common  fly  is  very  beautiful,  so  delicate  is  its  structure. 
The  wing  of  the  katydid,  as  it  is  called,  is  peculiarly  beautiful. 


WINGS. 


145 


How  the  katydid  makes  its  noise. 


How  you  can  stop  it. 


Here  it  is.  You  see  that  it  is  very 
delicate.  Its  color  is  a  light  green. 
You  see  that  rather  thick  three-cor- 
nered ridge  at  that  part  of  the  wing 
which  joins  the  body.  There  is  a 
similar  ridge  on  the  wing  of  the  other  side.  In  the  space  within 
this  ridge  there  is  a  thin  but  strong  membrane  or  skin,  so  that  it 
makes  a  kind  of  drum-head.  It  is  the  rubbing  together  of  these 
two  drum-heads  on  the  wings  that  makes  the  noise.  It  is  a 
queer  sound.  There  is  no  music  in  it,  but  the  katydids  seem  to 
enjoy  making  it. 

The  katydid  commonly  makes  three  rubs  at  a  time  with  its 
drum-heads.  It  sounds  somewhat  as  if  it  said  "  Katy  did,"  and 
from  this  comes  its  name.  Sometimes  there  are  only  two  rubs, 
and  then  you  can  fancy  that  it  says  "  She  did  "  or  "  She  didn't." 
The  katydids,  you  know,  are  all  quiet  in  the  daytime,  but  when 
evening  comes  they  are  very  noisy.  I  have  often  been  amused  to 
hear  them  as  they  begin  just  at  dusk.  One  will  begin,  and  per- 
haps say  its  "  Katy  did  "  several  times  ;  then  another,  on  a  neigh- 
boring tree,  will  reply ;  and  after  a  little  time  the  whole  tribe 
will  be  at  work.  Each  one  appears  to  rest  upon  it  after  each 
rubbing,  and  so  it  seems  as  if  they  answered  each  other  from 
one  tree  and  another.  It  is  curious  that  you  can  at  once  stop 
the  noise  of  this  insect  by  striking  the  trunk  of  the  tree  on 
which  he  is  with  your  hand. 

Questions. — What  are  the  bones  in  a  bird's  wing  like?  What  is  said  about  the 
size  of  birds'  wings  ?     What  about  the  muscles  that  work  them  ?     Why  cannot  a 

19 


14:6  WINGS. 


Questions. 


man  fly  if  he  makes  wings  for  himself?  What  birds  have  the  largest  wings?  What 
is  said  about  the  hen  ?  What  about  the  ostrich  ?  What  is  said  about  the  motions 
of  birds  in  flying?  What  is  said  of  the  swallow?  What  of  the  humming-bird? 
Tell  about  the  parts  of  a  feather  from  a  bird's  wing.  What  is  said  about  the  bat's 
wings  ?  What  about  its  motions  on  the  ground  ?  How  does  it  rest  ?  What  is  said 
about  the  wings  of  insects  ?     How  does  the  katydid  make  its  noise  ? 


COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS.  147 


The  skin  of  man.  Why  it  is  different  from  the  covering  of  animals. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

COVERINGS    OF   ANIMALS. 

The  skin  of  man  is  his  covering.  It  covers  up  like  a  case  all 
the  machinery  that  I  have  told  you  is  in  his  body — the  bones,  the 
muscles,  the  nerves,  the  arteries,  the  veins,  etc.  It  keeps  them 
from  being  injured.  Besides  this,  how  strange  we  should  look 
if  there  were  no  skin  to  cover  up  these  parts  from  view. 

The  skin  fits  very  nicely  all  parts  of  the  body.  On  the  hand 
it  is  like  a  glove.  See  how  well  it  fits.  But  observe  that  there 
are  some  places  where  it  is  quite  loose  and  full  of  wrinkles.  It 
is  so  between  the  thumb  and  forefinger,  and  around  the  joints 
of  the  fingers.  In  these  places  it  would  not  do  to  have  it  fit 
tight,  because  if  it  did  you  could  not  move  your  thumb  and 
fingers  as  freely  as  you  do. 

But  the  covering  of  man's  body  is  different  from  that  of  other 
animals.  It  is,  for  the  most  part,  bare  skin,  while  most  animals 
have  either  hair,  or  feathers,  or  scales,  or  hard  plates  like  armor, 
or  shells.  Why  is  it  that  man  has  a  covering  that  protects  him 
so  much  less  than  animals  generally  are  protected  by  their  cov- 
erings? It  is  because  he  knows  how  to  make  such  a  covering 
as  he  needs  to  put  on  over  his  skin.  He  can  suit  this  to  the  de- 
gree of  heat  or  cold.     But  animals  know  nothing  about  this. 


]STo  one  ever  saw  an  animal  make  clothes  and  put  them  on. 
The  Creator  has  given  to  each  animal  such  covering  or  clothes 
as  it  needs,  ready-made      Let  us  look  at  this  a  little. 


148  COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS. 

Fur  and  hair.  Blanketing  the  horse.  The  fur  of  the  cat.  Feathers. 

Animals  in  very  cold  climates  need  a  very  warm  covering. 
They  therefore  have  a  thick  fur.  But  animals  that  live  in  warm 
countries  have  rather  thin  hair  instead  of  fur.  The  elephant 
has  very  little  hair,  and  it  is  only  with  the  greatest  care  that  he 
can  be  made  to  live  through  our  cold  winters.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  monkey.  If  these  animals  had  a  good  covering  of 
fur  on  their  skins  the  cold  would  not  affect  them  in  this  way. 

The  hair  of  the  horse  is  rather  thin.  It  is  not  like  fur;  and 
if  the  horse's  master  is  kind,  he  is  very  careful  to  put  a  good 
blanket  on  him  whenever  the  cold  makes  it  necessary.  If  he 
did  not,  the  horse  would  get  chilled  and  take  cold.  The  horse 
is  not  a  native  of  cold  countries,  but  of  such  warm  countries  as 
Arabia.  There  horses  run  wild,  and  are  always  in  large  com- 
panies or  herds. 

You  know  how  thick  the  fur  is  on  the  cat.  You  can  see  how 
fine  it  is,  and  how  thickly  the  hairs  stand  together,  if  you  blow 
on  it  so  as  to  separate  the  hairs.  With  this  warm  coat  on  her, 
she  does  not  feel  the  cold  much.  You  see  her  often  in  cold 
weather  out-of-doors,  with  her  feet  gathered  up  under  her  to 
keep  them  warm.  The  monkey,  with  his  thin  hair,  could  not 
do  so.     He  has  to  be  kept  in  a  warm  place  in  the  winter. 

The  covering  of  birds,  while  it  is  such  as  to  keep  them  warm, 
is  very  light.  If  it  were  not  so,  they  could  not  fly  as  well  as 
they  do.  Feathers  are  so  light  that,  when  we  wish  to  speak  of 
anything  as  being  very  light,  we  say  that  it  is  as  light  as  a 
feather.  The  downy  feathers  on  the  breast  of  birds  are  espe- 
cially light.     The  feathers  of  the  wings  are  different.    They  are 


COVERINGS    OF   ANIMALS. 


149 


The  oily  feathers  of  the  duck. 


Why  fishes  have  scales,  and  why  they  are  oily. 


made  strong  for  the  work  of  flying,  and  at  the  same  time  they 
are  quite  light.  How  this  is  done  I  have  told  you  in  the  chap- 
ter before  this. 

Birds  that  go  much  into  the  water  have  an  oil  about  their 
feathers  which  keeps  them  from  being  soaked;  for  this  reason, 
a  duck,  when  it  comes  out  of  the  water,  is  almost  as  dry  as  before 
it  went  in.  But  if  a  hen  should  go  into  the  water  in  the  same 
way,  she  would  be  wet  through  her  feathers  to  her  skin.  She 
was  not  made  to  go  into  the  water,  and  so  has  neither  the  oily 
feathers  nor  the  webbed  feet  which  are  given  to  the  duck. 

Why  is  it  that  fishes  have  scales  ?  It  is  because  they  need  a 
smooth  covering  in  order  to  get  along  easily  in  the  water.  A 
covering  which  is  rough,  or  which  would  soak  in  water,  would 
be  bad  for  them.  The 
scales,  you  know,  lap 
over  one  upon  another, 
as  you  see  here  in  the 
herring.  They  thus 
make  quite  a  firm  coat 
of  mail,  and  at  the 
same  time  do  not  hin- 
der the  bending  mo- 
tions of  the  fish.  If  the  same  covering  were  all  in  one,  instead 
of  being  made  up  of  many  scales,  it  could  not  bend  as  easily  as 
it  does  now  in  turning  its  course  in  the  water.  The  scales  are 
kept  oiled,  and  this  helps  the  fish  to  glide  along  swiftly.  It  is 
this  that  makes  the  fish  so  slippery  that  it  is  difficult  to  hold  it 
in  its  struggles  when  it  is  first  taken  out  of  the  water. 


150 


COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS. 


IIow  the  hermit-crab  guards  its  naked  tail. 


I  have  told  you,  in  another  chapter,  about  the  coverings  of 
such  animals  as  lobsters  and  crabs.  There  is  one  kind  of  crab, 
called  the  hermit-crab,  that  has  no  covering  over  his  tail  as  he 
has  over  the  other  parts  of  his  body.     It  is  therefore  very  liable 

to  be  injured  unless  it  is  guarded 
in  some  way.  And  how  do  you 
think  he  guards  it  ?  He  just  puts 
it  into  some  shell  that  he  finds,  as 
you  see  here,and  then  goes  about, 
dragging  it  after  him.  As  he 
grows  the  tail  becomes  too  large 
for  the  shell,  and  as  soon  as  he 
feels  the  shell  be^innina:  to 
pinch,  he  pulls  his  tail  out  and 
goes  in  search  of  another  shell. 
It  is  amusing  to  see  him  try  one  after  another  till  he  finds  one 
that  fits  well.  Sometimes  two  of  these  crabs  come  to  the  same 
shell,  and  then  they  have  a  fight  about  it.  Very  foolish  must  a 
crab  feel  when  he  has  driven  another  one  off,  and  finds,  after  all, 
that  the  shell  he  has  been  fighting  for  does  not  fit  his  tail. 

The  hermit-crabs  are  subjects  for  our  wonder;  for  we  do 
not  see  why  they  should  not  be  provided  with  hard  shells  for 
protection,  which  would  seem  to  be  better  than  depending  upon 
the  death  of  other  kinds  of  creatures  whose  shells  they  may  use 
for  covering.  But  we  know  from  experience,  as  well  as  from 
our  faith  in  the  good  Father,  that  some  wise  purpose  is  served 
in  such,  to  ns,  singular  freaks.     The  hermits  actually  become 


COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS.  151 

Like  armed  men.  Tame  hermits. 

better  protected  when  they  choose  the  hard,  cast-off  shells  of 
shell-fish.  They  can  draw  within,  and  then  all  tender  parts  are 
out  of  harm's  way,  the  stout  claws  being  left  out  for  defence. 
The  hermits  are  like  armed  men  of  old,  who  carried  their  armor 
on  their  bodies,  and  had  heavy  weapons  to  fight  with.  The 
soft  body  of  a  hermit-crab  winds  quite  naturally  up  the  coil 
of  a  cast-off  shell,  and  seems  as  if  the  shell  belonged  to  him  by 
nature. 

The  great  horse-conch,  as  large  as  a  person's  head,  is  often 
found  occupied  by  a  large  sea-hermit  crab.  The  long,  soft  body 
coils  around  the  whorl,  inside,  and  after  some  time  it  grows  to 
be  bent,  so  that  one  would  think  it  was  made  there.  This 
heavy  shell  is  carried  wherever  the  hermit  goes. 

There  are  great  numbers  of  small  hermits,  occupying  the  little 
turret  shells  that  are  so  common  on  our  beaches ;  but  there  are 
some  that  live  exclusively  on  land.  One,  that  occupies  a  shell 
about  the  size  of  an  apple,  and  has  pretty,  rounded,  and  red- 
colored  claws,  is  seen  at  Key  West  and  Tortugas,  on  the  Florida 
Reef.  Its  habits  are  much  like  those  of  burrowing  insects. 
They  have  been  kept  in  confinement,  and,  so  tamed,  they  feed 
from  the  hand.  One  was  found  adhering  to  an  old  pipe-bowl, 
instead  of  a  shell;  which  shows  the  instinct  of  the  creature  to 
thrust  its  soft  body  into  something  for  protection.  Though  this 
creature's  body  must  have  clung  with  difficulty  to  the  inside  of 
the  pipe,  yet  he  executed  some  feats  quite  remarkable.  He 
climbed  up  the  corner  of  a  set  of  drawers  to  drink  from  a  sau- 
cer, frequently,  and  became  quite  tame. 


152  COVEEINGS    OF   ANIMALS. 

Questions. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  our  skin  as  a  covering?  What  is  said  about  its 
fitting  well  ?  Where  are  there  wrinkles,  and  why?  How  is  the  covering  of  man's 
body  different  from  that  of  other  animals,  and  why?  What  is  said  about  animals 
in  cold  climates?  What  about  those  that  live  in  warm  countries  ?  What  about  the 
elephant,  the  monkey,  and  the  horse?  What  about  the  fur  of  the  cat?  What 
about  the  covering  of  birds?  How  are  the  feathers  of  the  wing  different  from  those 
of  the  breast,  and  why  ?  Why  are  the  feathers  of  some  birds  oily  ?  Tell  about  the 
duck  and  the  hen.  Why  do  fishes  have  scales?  Why  are  they  kept  oiled?  Tell 
about  the  hermit-crab.  What  is  there  strange  about  a  hermit-crab?  What  do  the 
hermit-crabs  remind  one  of?  What  shell  does  the  great  sea-hermit  occupy?  What 
of  the  small  hermit-crabs  ?  Where  are  the  land-hermit  crabs  found  ?  What  of  their 
habits?     Mention  some  of  the  habits. 


BEAUTY    OF    THE    COVERINGS    OF   ANIMALS. 


153 


Beauty  of  some  very  small  insects.  Butterflies.  Colors  in  shells. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

BEAUTY   OF    THE    COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS. 

There  is  great  variety  in  the  coverings  of  insects.  In  some 
the  covering  is  like  burnished  armor.  The  variety  of  colors  is 
exceedingly  great,  and  in  many  they  have  a  splendid  brilliancy. 
Some  of  the  smallest  insects,  which  most  people  never  notice, 
are  surpassingly  beautiful  when  examined  with  the  microscope. 
It  is  with  them  in  this  respect  as  it  is  with  some  of  the  smallest 
flowers.  We  know  not  how  much  beauty  there  is  all  around  us 
in  the  small  things  that  God  has  created  till  we  take  the  micro- 
scope  and  look  at  them. 

The  butterflies  are  among  the  most  beautiful  of  insects.  Al- 
most every  variety  of  color  is  to  be  seen  in  them,  and  often  many 
colors  are  seen  together,  arranged  in  the  most  beautiful  manner. 
You  cannot  have  any  idea  of  the  great  variety  of  their  beauty 
unless  you  see  some  collection  of  them,  in  cases,  in  some  museum. 

You  have  often  admired  the  beauty  of  different  shells.  These 
are  the  coverings  of  animals  who  lead  a  very  quiet  life  in  them, 
as  I  told  you  about  the  oyster.  Very  splendid  are  the  colors 
often  on  the  inside  of  these  coverings,  and  sometimes  on  the 
outside  also;  and  even  when  the  outside  is  not  at  all  handsome 
when  we  get  the  shell  from  the  water,  we  often  find  clearing 
of!  the  outer  coating  with  acid,  or  by  rubbing,  will  show  us 
beautiful  colors.  Then,  too,  by  grinding  the  shell  in  different 
parts  of  it,  different  layers  are  seen  of  different  hues. 


154 


BEAUTY    OF   TIIE    COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS. 


"Why  God  made  .shells  so  beautiful. 


The  hoopoe. 


The  beauty  of  these  coverings  is  of  no  use  to  the  animals  that 
live  in  them.  They  have  no  eyes  to  see  it.  For  what,  then,  is 
it  intended?  It  is  for  our  gratification.  The  Creator  strews 
beautiful  things  even  on  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  for  us.  If  the 
coverings,  or  houses,  as  we  may  call  them,  of  all  the  animals 
that  live  there  were  as  homely  as  that  of  the  oyster,  they  would 
be  as  useful  and  comfortable  for  them  as  they  are  now,  decked 
with  their  elegant  colors.  So  far  as  they  are  concerned,  the 
beauty  is  thrown  away.  But  men  gather  the  shells,  and,  while 
they  admire  them,  they  see  in  the  beauty  which  the  Creator 
lavishes  even  in  the  depths  of  the  sea  the  evidence  of  his  abound- 
ing goodness. 

in  the  coverings  of  birds  is  veiy  great. 
The  various  colors  are  arranged 


The  variety  of  beauty 


"....    r^ 


in  their  plumage  in  every  va- 
riety of  manner,  and  there  are 
all  shades  of  the  colors,  from 
the  most  brilliant  to  the  most 
delicate. 

Commonly  the  greatest  dis- 
play in  the  plumage  of  birds 
is  in  the  delicate  and  downy 
feathers  of  the  breast.  But 
the  bird  that  you  see  here,  the 
hoopoe,  has  its  chief  beauty  in 
its  crest,  which  is  of  an  orange 
color  tipped  with  black.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  elegant  of  birds. 


BEAUTY   OF   THE    COVEEINGS    OF   ANIMALS. 


155 


The  beauty  of  the  peacock. 


Its  pride. 


Its  disagreeable  voice. 


In  the  peacock,  a  drawing  of  which  you  have  here,  there  is  a 
great  display  of  colors.  The  animal  struts  about,  and,  lifting 
its  tail  in  the  air,  spreads  it  like  a  fan,  and  seems  to  be  very  fool- 


ishly proud  of  its  beauty.     Proud  people  generally  have  some- 
thing disagreeable  about  them,  and  so  it  is  with  the  peacock. 


156 


BEATTTY    OF    THE    COVERINGS    OF    ANIMALS. 


A  bird-of-paradise. 


Its  cleanliness. 


Its  voice  is  so  harsh  and  screeching  that  no  one  wants  it  in  his 
neighborhood. 

Birds-of-paradise,  as  they  are  called,  are  exceedingly  beautiful. 
There  are  several  kinds 
of  them.  The  most  com- 
mon kind  is  the  one 
pictured  here.  I  will 
give  you  an  idea  of  its 
colors.  Most  of  its  body 
is  a  rich  brown ;  the 
throat  is  a  golden  green ; 
the  head  is  yellow;  the 
long,  downy  feathers 
that  you  see  so  abun- 
dant about  the  tail  are  of 
a  soft  yellow  color.  This 
elegant  bird  is  very  care- 
ful to  prevent  the  least 
speck  of  dirt  from  get- 
ting on  its  plumage ; 
and  when  it  sits  on  a  branch  of  a  tree  it  always  faces  the  wind, 
so  that  its  feathers  may  not  be  ruffled. 

There  is,  I  think,  in  the  humming-birds  more  variety  of  color 
than  in  any  other  kind  of  birds.  The  colors  are  very  brilliant, 
especially  upon  the  delicate  feathers  of  their  breasts ;  and  they 
are  shaded  in  the  most  beautiful  manner.  I  never  saw  a  finer 
display  of  colors  than  I  once  saw  in  a  collection  of  humming- 


BEAUTY    OF   THE    COVEEINGS    OF    ANIMALS. 


157 


Humming-birds. 


Beauty  of  the  furs  of  animals. 


birds  in  a  museum  in  Philadelphia.  Below  is  an  engraving  of 
a  few  varieties  of  these  birds.  Yon  can  see  what  different 
shapes  they  have.  They  are  alike  only  in  their  long,  slender 
bills.  And  when  one  sees  a  large  collection  of  them,  with  all 
their  varied  forms  and  colors,  he  is  struck  with  admiration  and 
wonder. 


Many  of  the  furs  of  animals  have  much  beauty,  but  there  is 
no  such  great  variety  of  color  as  there  is  in  the  plumage  of  birds. 
As  you  blow  on  a  fine  fur,  and  see  how  thickly  its  delicate  fibres 
stand  together,  you  admire  its  richness.     Each  fibre  of  it  is  in 


itself  a  beautiful  thing. 


158         BEAUTY  OF  THE  COVERINGS  OF  ANIMALS. 

A  caterpillar.  Why  such  animals  are  often  very  beautiful. 

We  hardly  know  wThy  it  is  that  some  animals  that  we  dislike 
so  much  should  have  so  much  beauty.  Worms  and  caterpillars 
are  disgusting  to  us,  and  yet  in  many  of  them  there  is  a  great 
display  of  elegant  colors.  While  writing  this,  I  see  one  crawling 
along  on  my  coat-sleeve  with  its  numerous  feet  of  curious  shape. 
Its  color  is  a  brilliant  green.  On  its  back  stand  up  in  a  row 
three  beautiful  light-yellow  tufts.  Behind  these,  on  a  dark  stripe, 
are  two  fleshy-looking  round  bunches,  that  are  a  most  brilliant 
red.  On  its  side  bristle  out  white  hairs  in  bundles.  Its  head  is 
red,  and  from  it  extend  forward  dark-colored  but  very  delicate 
feelers,  in  two  bundles.  I  suppose  they  are  feelers,  because  they 
are  shaped  like  the  feelers  of  the  butterfly,  which  you  see  on 
page  123. 

Now,  why  is  it  that  so  much  beauty  is  given  to  such  animals? 
It  does  not  seem  to  be  of  any  use.  But  this  cannot  be  so,  for 
God  has  a  use  for  everything  that  he  makes.  We  are  to  remem- 
ber that  he  can  make  a  thing  beautiful  as  easily  as  he  can  make 
it  homely.  And  it  is  just  this  lesson,  perhaps,  that  he  means  to 
teach  us  when  he  clothes  such  creatures  as  worms  and  caterpil- 
lars in  coverings  of  beautiful  colors.  It  is  different  with  us.  We 
try  to  make  beautiful  only  those  things  that  we  prize  much. 
There  are  some  things  that  it  would  be  a  foolish  waste  of  time 
for  us  to  ornament.  This  is  because  we  can  do  but  little  in  mak- 
ing things  beautiful.  But  there  is  no  end  to  God's  power  in  the 
creation  of  beauty.  He  can,  by  the  word  of  his  power,  make 
just  as  many  beautiful  things  as  he  pleases. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  variety  of  colors  in  insects?     What  is  said 


BEAUTY    OF   THE    COVERINGS    OF   ANIMALS.  159 

Questions. 

about  butterflies?  What  about  shells?  Is  their  beauty  of  any  use  to  the  animals 
that  live  in  them  ?  Why  is  so  much  beauty  put  in  them  ?  What  is  said  about  the 
variety  of  colors  in  the  coverings  of  birds  ?  Tell  about  the  hoopoe.  Tell  about  the 
peacock  and  about  the  birds-of-paradise.  What  is  said  about  humming-birds? 
What  is  said  of  the  furs  of  animals  ?  What  is  said  about  worms  and  caterpillars  ? 
Why  is  so  much  beauty  often  given  to  such  animals  ? 


160  HOW   MiN    IS    SUPERIOR   TO    ANIMALS. 


Man's  superiority  in  his  mind.  Machinery  of  animals  suited  to  their  minds. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

HOW   MAN   IS    SUPERIOR   TO   ANIMALS. 

You  see,  from  what  I  liave  told  you,  that  man  can  do  with  his 
hands  a  great  variety  of  things  that  animals  cannot  do.  It  has 
been  said,  therefore,  by  some  that  the  hand  is  the  great  thing 
that  makes  man  superior  to  animals.  But  this  is  not  true.  Of 
what  use  would  the  hand  be  if  there  was  not  a  mind  in  the  head 
that  knew  how  to  use  it?  Suppose  that  your  cat  had  a  hand 
instead  of  a  paw,  could  she  write  with  it  ?  No ;  the  mind 
in  her  brain  does  not  know  enough  for  this.  And  so  there 
are  a  great  many  other  things  that  we  do  with  our  hands 
which  the  cat  would  not  know  enough  to  do  with  hands,  if  she 
had  them. 

So,  then,  it  is  not  the  hand  merely  that  makes  you  superior  to 
a  cat,  but  it  is  the  mind  that  uses  the  hand.  Your  mind  knows 
more  than  her  mind  does,  and  wants  to  do  more  things  than  her 
mind  ever  dreams  of.  Your  mind,  therefore,  needs  such  an  in- 
strument as  the  hand  to  do  these  things  with,  while  a  paw  an- 
swers very  well  for  the  cat. 

God  gives  to  every  animal  just  such  machinery  as  its  mind 
can  use.  If  it  knows  a  great  deal,  that  is,  if  it  has  a  great  deal 
of  mind,  he  gives  it  a  great  deal  of  machinery ;  but  if  it  has  but 
little  mind,  he  gives  it  but  little  machinery ;  for  if  he  gave  it 
much,  it  would  not  know  how  to  work  it.     An  oyster,  as  I  have 


HOW  MAN   IS    SUPERIOR   TO   ANIMALS.  161 

Machinery  of  the  oyster,  and  of  the  cat  arid  dog.  Machinery  in  the  face. 

told  you,  knows  but  little  as  it  lies  covered  up  in  its  shell.  It 
knows  how  to  do  only  a  few  things,  and  so  it  has  but  little  ma- 
chinery. A  dog  or  a  cat  knows  a  great  deal  more  than  an  oyster, 
and  therefore  it  has  paws,  claws,  teeth,1  etc.,  as  machinery  for  its 
mind  to  use.  And  as  your  mind  knows  so  much  more  than  that 
of  a  dog  or  cat,  it  has  that  wonderful  machine,  the  hand,  to  do 
what  it  knows  how  to  do. 

The  mind  of  man  knows  so  much  that  it  will  contrive,  when 
there  are  no  hands,  to  use  other  things  in  place  of  them.  I  once 
saw  a  man  who  had  no  hands  write  and  do  various  other  things 
very  well  with  his  toes.  You  know  that  we  generally  use  the 
right  hand  most,  making  the  left  hand  rather  the  helpmeet  of 
the  right.  But  when  the  right  hand  is  lost  in  any  way,  the  mind 
sets  the  left  to  work  to  learn  to  do  as  the  lost  one  did.  I  once 
had  to  cut  off  the  right  arm  of  a  very  bright  little  girl.  But  her 
busy  mind  did  not  stop  working  because  it  had  lost  the  best  part 
of  its  machinery.  In  less  than  a  fortnight  I  saw  her  sewing 
with  her  left  hand,  fastening  her  work  with  a  pin  instead  of 
holding  it  as  she  used  to  do. 

There  is  some  other  machinery,  besides  the  hand,  that  you 
have  which  animals  have  not.  It  is  the  machinery  that  is  in  the 
face.  I  have  told  you  about  this  before,  in  the  chapter  on  the 
muscles.  A  dog,  when  he  is  pleased,  looks  up  at  you  and  wags 
his  tail ;  but  he  cannot  laugh  or  even  smile ;  neither  can  he 
frown.  Why  ?  Because  there  is  none  of  the  smiling,  and  laugh- 
ing, and  frowning  machinery  there.  And  so  it  is  with  other 
animals, 

20 


1G2 


HOW    MAN    IS    SUPERIOR   TO    ANIMALS. 


Variety  of  expression  in  the  face.        The  wolf.        Why  we  have  no  marling  muscles. 

The  variety  of  work  that  this  machinery  of  expression  does 
in  the  face  of  man  is  very  great,  as  you  can  see  if  you  watch 
the  varied  expressions  of  countenance  in  persons  engaged  in  ani- 
mated conversation.  But  there  is  very  little  variety  of  expres- 
sion in  the  face  of  an  animal.  Now  why  is  it  that  they  have 
not  the  same  muscles  of  expression  that  we  have  ?  It  is  for  the 
same  reason  that  they  have  not  hands.  The  mind  of  man  has  a 
great  many  more  thoughts  and  feelings  than  the  mind  of  an  ani- 
mal has.  It  needs,  therefore,  more  machinery  to  express  these 
thoughts  and  feelings.  The  wagging  of  the  dog's  tail  answers 
very  well  to  express  his  simple  feeling  of  pleasure  ;  but  you  have 
so  many  different  pleasant  thoughts  and  feelings  that  you  need 
the  varied  play  of  the  muscles  of  the  face  to  express  them. 

But  some  animals  have  certain  muscles  of  expression  in  the 
face   that   we   have  not.     They  are  the   snarling   muscles,  as 

they  are   called.     They 


-^§=» 


draw  up  the  upper  lip  on 
each  side  of  the  mouth 
in  such  a  way  as  to 
show  the  long,  tearing 
teeth.  In  this  wolf,  about 
to  devour  a  lamb  that  he 
has  caught,  you  see  what 
a  fierce  and  horrid  ex- 
pression these  muscles 
give  to  the  face.  Now 
the  reason  that  we  have 


HOW   MAN   IS    SUPERIOR  TO   ANIMALS.  163 

Why  animals  cannot  talk.        Some  things  done  better  by  some  animals  than  by  man. 

no  such  muscles  is  that  we  ought  never  to  have  snarling  feel- 
ings. I  have  seen  both  men  and  children  look  very  bad  when 
they  were  angry ;  but  they  would  have  looked  a  great  deal 
worse  if  they  had  snarling  machinery  in  their  faces,  as  wolves 
and  cats  and  dogs  have  in  theirs. 

There  is  some  machinery  that  animals  have  just  as  we  do, 
which  they  cannot  use  to  do  as  many  things  as  we  can,  because 
they  do  not  know  how.  I  will  give  you  an  example,  and  then 
you  will  see  what  I  mean.  Did  you  ever  think  why  it  is  that 
animals  cannot  talk  ?  It  is  not  because  they  have  not  the  ma- 
chinery for  talking.  Many  of  them  have  tongues,  teeth,  lips, 
etc.  These  are  the  things  that  we  use  to  talk  with,  and  yet, 
though  they  have  them,  and  have  a  voice  that  comes  out  from 
their  throats  as  ours  does,  they  cannot  talk.  "Why  is  this?  It 
is  because  they  do  not  know  how  to  use  these  parts  in  talking, 
though  they  do  know  how  to  use  them  in  other  things,  as  eating. 
The  cow  knows  how  to  use  her  teeth  and  lips  and  tongue  in  eat- 
ing; but  if  she  had  a  mind  like  yours,  she  would  use  them  in 
talking,  and  would  not  merely  low. 

The  parrot,  you  know,  does  know  how  to  talk,  after  a  fashion. 
This  particular  faculty  is  given  to  it,  though  it  is  rather  a  stupid 
bird  about  other  things.  And,  after  all,  its  talking  is  a  very 
awkward  imitation  of  the  speech  of  man  ;  it  only  says  what  it 
hears  people  say,  and  that  in  a  very  bungling  manner. 

Though  man  has  more  machinery  and  can  do  more  things 
than  any  other  animal,  there  are  some  things  that  some  animals 
can  do  better  than  he  can.     Man  can  climb,  but  he  cannot  do  it 


1G4  HOW    MAN    IS    SUPERIOR   TO    ANIMALS. 

Some  animals  can  do  things  which  man  cannot. 

as  well  as  a  cat  or  a  monkey.  He  can  swim,  but  not  as  well  as 
a  fish.  The  frog  and  the  grasshopper  are  better  jumpers.  The 
horse  and  the  dog  can  run  faster  than  he  can.  lie  cannot  see  as 
far  as  some  birds.  He  has  but  two  eyes,  but  the  fly  has  thou- 
sands of  eyes,  so  that  it  can  see  in  almost  all  directions  at 
once.  He  cannot  smell  as  well  as  the  dog,  who  can  follow  the 
track  of  his  master  by  the  scent  left  in  his  footsteps.  lie  can 
mimic  different  sounds,  but  the  mocking-bird  can  beat  him  at 
this. 

But,  besides  all  this,  there  are  some  things  done  by  some  ani- 
mals that  man  cannot  do  at  all.  He  cannot  fly  like  the  birds 
and  insects.  He  cannot  go  to  roost  like  the  birds.  He  cannot 
walk  along  on  the  wall  over  his  head,  as  the  fly  does  with  the 
suckers  on  its  feet. 

Each  animal  is  fitted  to  do  just  those  things  that  it  needs  to 
do.  For  example,  the  monkey  needs  to  climb  to  get  his  living, 
and  the  Creator  has  therefore  made  him  so  that  he  can  climb 
very  easily.  For  this  purpose,  instead  of  having  two  hands  and 
two  feet,  as  we  have,  he  has  four  things  shaped  somewhat  like 
hands,  with  which  he  can  grasp  the  limbs  of  trees.  I  might  give 
you  other  examples,  but  you  can  find  many  in  the  chapters  on 
what  animals  use  for  hands,  the  tools  of  animals,  and  their  in- 
struments of  defence  and  attack. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  hand?  In  what  is  man  superior  to  animals? 
What  is  said  about  the  machinery  that  God  gives  to  different  animals?  Tell  about 
the  man  that  had  no  hands,  and  about  the  girl  that  had  her  arm  cut  off.  What  is 
said  about  the  machinery  in  the  face?     What  about  the  variety  of  work  that  this 


HOW   MAN   IS    SUPERIOR   TO   ANIMALS.  165 

Questions. 

machinery  does?  Why  do  not  animals  have  the  same  muscles  of  expression  that 
man  has?  What  muscles  of  expression  do  some  animals  have  that  man  has  not? 
Why  does  not  man  have  them  ?  Why  cannot  animals  talk  ?  What  is  said  about 
the  parrot?  Mention  some  things  that  some  animals  can  do  better  than  man.  Men- 
tion some  things  done  by  animals  that  he  cannot  do  at  all.  What  is  every  animai 
fitted  to  do? 


1G6  THE   THINKING    OF   ANIMALS. 


What  animals  think  about.  The  cat  and  the  snow. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

THE   THINKING    OF    ANIMALS. 

You  saw  in  the  last  chapter  that  the  great  superiority  of  man 
over  other  animals  is  in  his  mind.  Let  us  look,  now,  at  those 
things  in  which  their  minds  are  like  his,  and  those  things  in 
which  they  differ  from  it. 

I  have  already  told  you  some  things  about  the  thinking  of  ani- 
mals. Some  of  them  think  a  great  deal.  They  think  about 
what  they  see,  and  hear,  and  feel  very  much  as  we  do.  I  once 
had  a  cat  that  was  born  in  the  spring,  after  the  snow  was  all  gone. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  next  winter  the  first  snow  that  came 
was  quite  deep.  It  fell  in  the  night.  It  was,  of  course,  a  new 
sight  to  my  cat.  When  she  came  out  in  the  morning  she  looked 
at  it  with  very  curious  eyes,  just  as  we  look  at  anything  new. 
I  suppose  that  she  thought  how  clean  and  white  and  pretty  it 
was.  After  looking  a  little  while,  she  poked  the  snow  first  with 
one  paw  and  then  with  the  other  several  times,  to  see  how  it  felt. 
Then  she  gathered  up  between  her  paws  as  much  as  she  could 
hold,  and  threw  it  up  in  the  air  over  her  head  ;  and  then  she  ran 
swiftly  all  around  the  yard,  making  the  snow  fly  about  like 
feathers  wherever  she  went.  Xow,  though  my  cat  could  not 
talk,  I  could  see  by  her  actions  that  her  thoughts  and  feelings 
were  very  much  such  as  children  have  when  they  play  in  the 
snow. 


THE   THINKING    OF   ANIMALS. 


167 


The  sport  of  animals. 


Sober  animals. 


Animals  are  much  like  children  in  their  sports.  We  notice 
this  very  often  in  dogs  and  cats.  But  the  same  thing  is  true  of 
other  animals.  It  is  amusing  to  see  porpoises  playing  with  each 
other  in  the  water.  As  they  throw  themselves  up  out  of  the 
water,  and  dive  down  again,  they  chase  each  other  as  dogs  and 
cats  do.  Some  birds  are  very  lively  in  their  sports.  Insects 
have  their  sports  also.  The  ants,  industrious  as  they  generally 
are,  have  their  times  for  play.  They  run  races ;  they  wrestle ; 
they  carry  each  other  on  their  backs  in  the  same  way  that  boys 
do ;  they  run  one  after  another,  and  dodge  each  other  behind 
stalks  of  grass,  as  boys 
do  behind  trees  and 
posts  ;  they  have  scuf- 
fles and  mock -fights 
together.  Very  busy 
are  their  minds  in  their 
little  brains  in  these 
sports — as  busy  as  your 
minds  are  in  your 
sports. 

There  are  some  ani-  ; 

mals   that   you   never       -  \. 
see  engaged  in  sports.        y 
Their   thoughts    seem      J 
to  be  always  of  the  so-    i  \ . 
ber  kind.     You  never    *V' 
see    toads    and    frogs 


168  THE    THINKING    OF    ANIMALS. 

The  Irishman  and  the  owl.         The  thinking  of  animals  in  taking  care  of  their  young. 

play.  They  always  look  very  grave.  The  owl  is  one  of  the 
soberest-looking  of  animals.  He  looks  as  if  he  were  considering 
something.  There  is  a  picture  of  one  on  the  preceding  page. 
A  man  once  bought  an  owl,  supposing  it  to  be  a  parrot.  Some 
one  asked  him,  a  day  or  two  after,  if  his  parrot  taJked  yet.  No, 
said  he,  but  he  keeps  up  a  great  thinking,  and  I  suppose  he  will 
speak  his  thoughts  when  he  gets  more  acquainted. 

Animals  think  a  great  deal  in  taking  care  of  their  young. 
What  care  the  hen  exercises  over  her  brood  of  chickens !  She 
has  some  of  the  same  thoughts  and  feelings  of  love  that  a  mother 
has  in  taking  care  of  her  child.  And  the  bird,  that  has  her  little 
ones  in  the  nest,  has  many  thoughts  about  them  as  she  goes  out 
to  gather  food,  and  then  wings  her  way  back  to  put  it  into  their 
open  mouths. 

It  is  interesting  to  watch  canary-birds  as  they  hatch  and  rear 
their  young.  The  male  bird  commonly  insists  upon  it  that  the 
female  shall  sit  upon  the  nest  all  the  time,  while  he  takes  upon 
himself  the  task  of  feeding  her.  A  male  canary  belonging  to  a 
friend  of  mine  was  excessively  particular  on  this  point.  He 
would  not  let  his  mate  leave  the  nest  for  a  moment,  and  if  she  did 
he  would  fight  her  till  she  went  back.  He  wTas  exceedingly  busy 
in  feeding  her,  and  might  certainly  be  called  a  good  provider. 

A  lady  gave  me  a  very  interesting  account  of  two  orioles  that 
built  their  nest  on  a  tree  close  by  her  father's  house.  They 
came  regularly  every  year  to  the  same  spot,  and  the  family  al- 
ways knew  the  very  day  of  their  arrival  by  their  joyous  singing. 
They  seemed  to  have  the  same  feelings  of  joy  that  people  gener- 


.THE   THINKING    OF    ANIMALS. 


169 


The  two  orioles. 


■^<&' 


ally  do  when  they  return  to  a  much-loved  home  after  a  long  ab- 
sence. At  one  time  one  of  their  little  ones  fell  from  the  nest. 
The  parents  manifested  their  concern  by  flying  about  in  the 
most  hurried,  uneasy  manner,  and  making  mournful  cries.  The 
family  pitied  the  poor  birds,  and  the  little  one  was  carefully 
picked  up,  amid  the  flutterings  and  cries  of  the  old  birds,  and 


170  THE   THINKING   OF   ANIMALS. 

The  spider.  The  thinking  of  animals  in  building  their  dwellings. 

was  replaced  in  the  nest.  And  now  the  joy  of  the  parent  birds 
over  their  restored  one  was  expressed  by  a  long  and  merry  peal 
of  song,  as  they  sat  perched  on  the  branch  close  by  their  little 
nestlings.  At  length  one  of  these  orioles  died,  and  the  other  left 
the  nest  and  never  more  returned. 

See  that  spider  on  his  web.  lie  is  watching  for  flies.  The 
mind  in  his  little  brain  thinks  of  every  fly  that  comes  buzzing 
along,  and  is  anxious  that  it  should  get  its  legs  entangled  in  the 
snares  that  he  has  woven.  How  glad  he  feels  when  he  sees  one 
caught  by  these  snares !  And  if  he  thinks  that  they  are  not  strong 
enough  to  hold  the  fly,  he  runs  and  quickly  weaves  some  more 
threads  about  him.  In  the  same  way  do  all  animals  that  catch 
their  prey  think  very  busily  while  they  are  doing  it. 

Animals  think  much  in  building  their  dwellings.  The  bird 
searches  for  what  it  can  use  in  building  its  nest,  and  in  doing 
this  it  thinks.  The  beavers  think  as  they  build  their  dams  and 
their  houses.  They  think  in  getting  their  materials,  and  also  in 
arranging  them,  and  in  plastering  them  together  with  mud. 

Some  spiders  build  houses  that  you  would  think  must  have 
been  made  by  some  thinking  creature.  They  have  no  brain,  but 
small,  nervous  threads  with  here  and  there  knots  which  seem  to 
answer  as  little  brains.  You  have  learned  something  of  this  in 
Chapter  XVIII. 

Now  we  see,  occasionally,  creatures  doing  more  intelligent 
things  than  we  expect  them  to  do,  if  we  judge  them  according 
to  the  amount  of  brain  they  have.  We  know  that  a  man  may 
do  things  that  a  monkey  cannot:  and  we  see  that  man  has  a 


172  THE   THINKING    OF    ANIMALS. 

The  tarantula.  Spiders  nests.  Florida  spiders. 

• 

larger  brain  ;  the  largest  of  all.  We  see,  also,  that  a  monkey  can 
do  more  intelligent  things  than  a  cat  or  a  cow,  because  his  brain 
is  larger  in  proportion  ;  and  so  through  the  whole  animal  creation. 

There  are  now  and  again  creatures  exhibiting  strange  facul- 
ties ;  they  do  things  that  one  would  think  could  onry  be  done  by 
man.  We  cannot  yet  explain  this,  but  we  may  admire  these  things, 
and  bear  in  mind  that  the  Creator  has  designed  all  things  well. 

A  kind  of  tarantula,  the  spider  whose  bite  is  poisonous,  builds 
its  house  in  a  wonderful  manner.  It  first  digs  a  hole  in  the 
ground,  and  then  lines  it  by  spinning  a  pure  white  satin-like  silk 
over  the  interior,  making  the  sides  one  continuous  tube  of  silk. 
When  you  come  to  study  the  insects,  yon  will  learn  how  this 
spinning  is  done.  When  the  underground  room  or  cellar  is  fin- 
ished, the  spider  proceeds  to  pile  up  bits  of  wood,  and  he  places 
them  just  as  boys  build  log  houses,  by  laying  them  at  right  an- 
gles on  each  other.  You  will  see  a  picture  of  this  spider's  nest 
on  the  preceding  page. 

Persons  have  watched  these  spiders  closely,  at  work.  Does  it 
not  seem  too  wonderful  to  be  true;  but  they  have  been  seen. 
The  spaces  between  the  logs,  or  sticks,  he  fills  with  plaster,  made 
up  by  wetting  the  earth  by  his  mouth. 

The  silk  he  spins  for  lining  is  as  good  as  that  made  from  the 
silk-worm.  A  spider  that  is  very  common  in  Florida  weaves  its 
net  across  bushes,  and  such  threads  are  so  strong  they  resist,  for 
an  instant,  the  pressure  of  the  body  in  passing  through  it.  This 
silk  has  been  wound  in  quantities  sufficient  to  test  its  qualities, 
but  it  is  not  convenient  to  wind  the  silk  from  the  spider's  body 


THE   THINKING    OF   ANIMALS. 


173 


Trap-door  spiders. 


as  it  is  in  the  cocoons 


OT'  Perhaps  the  most  interest- 
ing work  ever  seen  by  such  hum- 
ble creatures  is  the  nest  of  the  trap- 
door spiders.  These  nests  are  en- 
tirely underground,  and  open  on 
the  surface,  always  on  a  slight  in- 
cline. It  is  impossible  to  distin- 
guish the  nest  until  the  door  is 
opened.  Then  it  is  seen  that  the 
opening  is  fitted  with  a  stopper  so 
tightly  closed  there  is  no  line  to  show  where  it  fits.  The 
nest  is  about  eight  inches  deep,  and  is  a  straight  tube  an  inch 
and  a  half  in  diameter  inside.  This  tube  is  lined  completely 
with  beautiful  satin-silk.  The  stopper  or  trap-door  is  made  of 
mud,  and  lined  with  silk,  which  is  connected  with  the  silk  of  the 
interior  by  a  narrow  bar,  which  forms  a  hinge.  It  all  looks  like 
the  hand  of  man.     We  see  what  design  there  is  in  placing  the 


174  THE    THINKING    OF    ANIMALS. 

Florida  worms.  Tube  building. 

nests  all  on  a  side  hill.  The  spider  takes  advantage  of  this,  and 
puts  his  hinge  on  the  cover  and  tube  on  the  highest  point,  so 
that  the  cover  will  always  surely  fall  down  and  shut  him  in  when 
he  retreats.  If  you  try  to  pry  open  his  door  he  seizes  hold  of 
the  inner  side  of  it  and  pulls  with  all  his  might,  only  giving  up 
when  the  tube  is  broken.  The  best  security  is  from  the  chances 
of  the  door  escaping  detection  entirely,  for  one  cannot  see  where 
the  sharp  lines  are  that  form  the  borders.  The  grass,  too,  aids  in 
concealing  it.  There  are  some  that  have  a  second  tube,  built 
underground,  an  offshoot  from  the  first;  in  this  is  a  second  valve, 
or  trap-door,  behind  which  the  spider  retreats  when  pushed  be- 
yond the  first  entrance.  This  kind  of  spider  reminds  us  of  some 
warrior  or  chief,  who  has  a  castle  to  live  in  and  defend.  These 
houses  all  have  a  small  hole  at  the  bottom,  through  which  any 
moisture  escapes.  The  trap-doors  or  stoppers  to  these  tubes  are 
so  circular  that  they  look  as  if  punched  out  by  a  perfectly  circular 
steel  implement. 

On  the  Florida  Reef  lives,  among  many  another  kind  of  worm, 
one  that  builds  up  a  house  much  as  the  tarantula  builds.  It  lives 
on  the  flats,  in  shallow  water,  where  one  can  examine  it  very 
closely.  It  belongs  to  an  order  of  worms  called  Annelids.  It 
has  no  long  limbs,  and  nothing  but  soft  tentacles  to  work  with, 
which  are  around  the  mouth.  With  these  soft  tentacles  the  worm 
reaches  forth  and  selects  certain  bits  of  debris  and  builds  up  a 
tube,  several  inches  in  length.  The  bottom  of  the  shallow  flats, 
where  these  house-building  worms  are  seen,  is  mostly  made  up 
of  bits  of  coral  and  little  limestone  leaves  of  corallines,  or  sea- 


THE   THINKING    OF    ANIMALS.  175 

Tube  building.  Questions. 

weeds  that  have  a  lime  skeleton  or  framework  within  the  green 
portion.  When  these  seaweeds  die,  the  green  and  vegetable  por- 
tion washes  away,  and  leaves  a  frame  of  lime,  made  up  of  little 
heart-shaped  blocks.  The  wonderful  part  of  this  worm's  work 
is,  that  it  selects  these  little  tiles  of  lime,  and  builds  up  its  tube 
exclusively  of  them.  The  little  tiles  are  flat,  and  they  are  placed 
one  upon  the  other  just  as  a  faced-stone  wall  is  built.  During 
the  construction  of  this  wall  the  creature  introduces  here  and 
there  bits  of  green  algae,  that  hang  down  and  conceal  somewhat 
the  work  ;  and  this  produces  a  protection,  from  its  resemblance  to 
the  surrounding  seaweeds,  thus  cheating  the  hungry  fishes  that 
are  looking  around  for  a  bite.  Still  more  wonderful  is  the  fact 
that  the  creature  tops  off  his  tube  by  constructing  a  cover.  A  bit 
of  shell  hinged  at  one  point  by  some  glue-like  substance,  which 
he  also  uses  for  lining  his  tube,  is  covered  with  green  seaweeds. 
It  is  singular  that  a  spider  should  exercise  so  much  intelligence 
(seemingly),  but  here  is  a  worm,  quite  low  in  the  scale  of  life, 
doing  what  we  expect  to  see  done  only  by  the  highest  animals. 
Nature  has  given  these  lowly  creatures  this  faculty  of  deception, 
which  allows  them  to  place  weeds  upon  their  structures,  to  re- 
semble the  surrounding  growth. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  thinking  of  animals?  What  is  told  about  a 
cat?  What  is  said  about  the  sports  of  animals?  Tell  about  the  ants.  Tell  about 
the  owl.  What  is  said  about  animals  taking  care  of  their  young?  Tell  about  the 
canary-bird.  Tell  about  the  orioles.  What  is  said  about  the  spider  ?  What  is  said 
about  animals  building  their  dwellings  ?  What  of  the  house-building  spiders  ?  Have 
they  a  brain  ?  What  have  they  instead  ?  What  do  they  do  that  is  strange  ?  What 
animal  has  the  largest  brain  ?     Why  does  a  monkey  do  more  intelligent  things  than 


176  THE   THINKING   OF   ANIMALS. 

Questions. 

a  cat?  What  is  a  tarantula?  What  of  its  bite?  Does  it  build  a  house?  How  is 
it  built?  What  does  the  spider  build  on  the  top  of  the  cellar?  How  does  he  fill  up 
the  spaces  left  between  the  logs  or  sticks?  What  is  the  nature  of  the  silk?  What 
of  the  spider  in  Florida  ?  What  of  the  trap-door  spiders  ?  Describe  the  nest.  How 
is  it  lined  ?  What  does  it  look  like?  Why  are  the  nests  all  placed  on  an  incline  or 
side  hill  ?  What  happens  when  you  try  to  pry  open  a  nest  ?  What  of  the  worm  on 
the  Florida  Reef?  To  what  order  does  the  worm  belong  ?  What  does  it  work  with  ? 
What  is  the  nature  of  the  flats  on  which  the  worm  builds  ?  What  kind  of  material 
does  the  worm  use  in  building?  Describe  the  nature  of  the  corallines.  What  does 
the  worm  do  to  deceive?  What  does  the  worm  do  to  line  his  tube  ?  What  is  strange 
about  this  house-building  by  a  worm  ? 


MORE   ABOUT   THE   THINKING    OF   ANIMALS. 


U7 


Stories  about  the  shepherd's  do^ 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

MOKE   ABOUT   THE    THINKING    OF    ANIMALS. 

As  animals  think,  they  learn.  Some  learn  more  than  others. 
The  dog  learns  a  good  deal ;  so  do  the  monkey  and  the  elephant. 
Some  are  good  at  learning  some  particular  things.  The  parrot 
learns  to  mimic  talking,  though  it  is  quite  stupid  about  some 
other  things.  The  mocking-bird  learns  to  imitate  a  great  many 
different  sounds.  The 
shepherd's  dog,  seen  here, 
though  he  does  not  know 
as  much  about  most  things  / 
as  dogs  of  some  other  :. 
kinds,  understands  par-  / 
ticularly  well  how  to  take  >- 
care  of  sheep.  If  he  is  t'  ':■ 
trained  to  this  business 
he  will  show  great  skill  in 
doing  it.  James  Hogg, 
a  Scotch  poet,  commonly 
called  the  Ettrick  Shep- 
herd, relates  many  wonderful  anecdotes  of  his  dog,  whom  he 
called  Sirrah.  He  says  that  one  night  a  large  flock  of  lambs  got 
out  from  their  fold  and  ran  away  among  the  hills.  When  the 
shepherd  said,  "  Sirrah,  they're  a'  awa' !"  the  dog  dashed  off  after 
them,  and  was  soon  out  of  sight.     The  shepherd  also,  and  his 

21 


178  MORE   ABOUT   TIIE   TIIINKING   OF   ANIMALS. 

Animals  build  always  the  same  way,  aud  have  no  new  fashions. 

man,  started  off  in  pursuit.  They  searched  all  night,  but  could 
find  nothing  of  the  dog  or  the  lambs ;  but  in  the  morning  they 
espied  Sirrah  standing  guard  at  the  mouth  of  a  gorge,  or  narrow 
pass,  and  anxiously  looking  for  his  master  to  come.  He  had 
succeeded  in  finding  all  the  scattered  lambs,  and  here  they  were 
in  this  gorge,  into  which  he  had  driven  them.  It  is  told  of  an- 
other dog  of  this  kind  that  he  would  pick  out  any  stray  sheep 
from  the  midst  of  a  whole  flock,  and  drive  it  back  to  the  flock 
to  which  it  belonged.  This  dog  was  once  observed  trying  to 
drive  a  flock  over  a  bridge  which  they  were  afraid  to  cross.  He 
managed  very  well,  and  at  length  succeeded  in  getting  them 
over.  It  was  amusing  to  see  how  he  did  it.  At  one  moment 
he  was  driving  up  some  of  the  scattered  ones,  and  the  next  he 
was  among  the  foremost,  urging  them  forward.  After  a  while 
he  made  some  of  the  foremost  pass  over,  and  then  the  whole 
flock  followed. 

Though  animals  think  and  learn,  they  do  not  have  much  orig- 
inality. They  always  do  things  very  much  in  the  same  way. 
They  do  not  keep  contriving  some  new  ways  of  doing  things  as 
men  do.  Each  kind  of  bird  has  its  own  way  of  building  a  nest, 
and  it  is  always  the  same  way.  The  robins  build  their  nests 
now  just  as  they  did  hundreds  of  years  ago.  The  moles  build 
their  tunnelled  habitations  under  ground  year  after  year  after  the 
plan  that  you  see  on  page  117.  And  so  of  other  animals.  They 
have  no  new  fashions,  and  learn  none  from  each  other.  But  men, 
you  know,  are  always  contriving  new  ways  of  building  houses, 
or  learning  them  from  other  men. 


MOEE   ABOUT   THE   THINKING   OF   ANIMALS.  179 

What  is  done  by  instinct.       Hens  hatching  duck's  eggs  and  sitting  on  pieces  of  chalk. 

Many  of  the  things  that  animals  know  how  to  do  they  seem  to 
know  either  without  learning,  or  without  learning  in  the  same 
way  that  we  learn.  They  are  said  to  do  such  things  by  instinct ; 
but  what  instinct  really  is  no  one  can  tell.  It  is  by  this  instinct 
that  birds  build  their  nests,  and  bees  their  honeycombs,  and 
beavers  their  dams  and  huts.  If  these  things  were  all  contrived 
and  thought  out  just  as  men  contrive  houses,  there  would  be 
some  changes  in  the  fashions  of  them,  and  some  improvements. 
Nearly  all  that  we  know  about  this  instinct  is  that  some  very 
nice  things  are  done  by  it,  without  much  thinking  being  mixed 
up  with  it. 

This  want  of  thinking  sometimes  leads  to  some  queer  mistakes. 
If  you  put  a  duck's  eggs  in  a  hen's  nest  she  will  sit  on  them  as 
if  they  were  her  own  eggs,  and  after  the  ducks  are  hatched  she 
will  take  care  of  them,  not  seeming  to  know  that  they  are  not 
chickens.  One  would  suppose  that  she  would  know,  because 
they  look  so  different  from  chickens,  and  have  bills  so  unlike 
theirs.  But  she  does  not  seem  to  think  of  this.  And  it  is 
amusing  to  see  her  after  the  ducks  get  large  enough  to  go 
into  the  water.  Off  they  run,  and  plunge  in,  and  swim  about, 
while  the  old  hen  stands  by  the  water,  greatly  alarmed  lest 
they  should  be  drowned.  She  does  not  understand  it;  she 
does  not  know  that  ducklings  have  an  instinct  different  from 
chickens. 

So,  too,  if  the  hen  has  rounded  pieces  of  chalk  put  in  her  nest, 
she  will  sit  on  them  as  if  they  were  real  eggs.  Her  instinct 
makes  her  sit;  but  if  she  had  much  reason  she  would  not  sit  on 


180  MORE   ABOUT   THE   THINKING   OF   ANIMALS. 

The  building  instinct  of  the  beaver.  How  the  minds  of  animals  differ  from  ours. 

pieces  of  chalk.  If  she  thought  much,  she  would  find  out  what 
they  were  and  quit  her  nest. 

I  have  mentioned  the  building  instinct  of  the  beavers.  An 
English  gentleman  caught  a  young  one  and  put  him  at  first  in  a 
cage.  After  a  while  he  let  him  out  in  a  room  where  there  was 
a  great  variety  of  things.  As  soon  as  he  was  let  out  he  began 
to  exercise  his  building  instinct.  He  gathered  together  what- 
ever he  could  find,  brushes,  baskets,  boots,  clothes,  sticks,  bits  of 
coal,  etc.,  and  arranged  them  as  if  to  build  a  dam.  Xow,  if  he  had 
had  his  wits  about  him,  as  we  should  say,  he  would  have  thought 
that  there  was  no  use  in  building  a  dam  where  there  is  no  water. 
It  is  from  such  mistakes  as  these  that  I  have  mentioned  that  the 
instinct  of  animals  is  said  to  be  blind. 

It  is  plain  that,  while  animals  learn  about  things  by  their 
senses  as  we  do,  they  do  not  think  nearly  as  much  about  what 
they  learn,  and  this  is  one  reason  that  they  do  not  know  as  much 
as  we  do.  Even  the  wisest  of  them,  as  the  elephant  and  the  dog, 
do  not  think  over  what  they  see  and  hear  very  much. 

But  this  is  not  all.  There  are  some  things  that  we  understand 
about  which  animals  know  nothing.  They  know  nothing  about 
what  happened  before  they  were  born,  or  what  happens  now  in 
their  lifetime  away  from  them  in  other  places.  They  know  noth- 
ing about  what  is  to  happen.  They  know  nothing  about  God 
and  another  world.  You  cannot  teach  them  anything  about  any 
such  subjects.  The  reason  is,  that  while  their  minds  are  like 
ours  in  some  things,  they  are  different  in  other  things. 

You  can  see  this  great  difference  between  your  minds  and  the 


MOKE   ABOUT   THE   THINKING    OF    ANIMALS.  181 

What  some  wise  men  are  foolish  aud  wicked  enough  to  say. 

minds  of  animals  in  one  thing.  You  never  would  think  of  tell- 
ing a  story  to  a  dog  or  a  cat  as  you  would  to  a  child,  for  you 
know  that  it  would  not  be  understood. 

The  minds  of  animals  are  so  much  unlike  ours  that  they  do 
not  know  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong.  Some  sup- 
pose that  a  dog  will  not  do  certain  things  because  he  knows  that 
it  is  wrong  to  do  them.  But  this  is  not  so.  He  is  afraid  to  do 
what  he  would  be  whipped  for.  If  he  sees  a  piece  of  meat  on  a 
table,  he  will  not  take  it  simply  because  he  knows  his  master 
wrould  not  like  it,  and  not  because  he  knows  that  it  is  wrong  to 
steal. 

Questions. — What  is  said  about  the  learning  of  animals?  Tell  about  the  shep- 
herd's dog.  What  is  said  about  the  contrivance  of  animals  ?  Why  do  they  have 
no  new  fashions?  What  is  said  about  instinct?  Tell  about  the  hen's  hatching 
duck's  eggs.  Tell  about  her  sitting  on  pieces  of  chalk.  What  is  told  about  the 
beaver?  What  is  one  reason  that  animals  do  not  know  as  much  as  we  do?  What 
things  do  they  know  nothing  about?  Do  they  know  the  difference  between  right 
and  wrong  ? 


182  WHAT    SLEEP    IS   FOR. 


The  machinery  of  the  body  needs  seasons  of  rest  for  repairing. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

WHAT     SLEEP     IS     FOR. 

All  animals  have  their  times  for  sleeping.  It  would  not  do 
for  their  minds  to  use  the  machinery  of  the  bod}7  all  the  time ; 
if  they  did,  the  machinery  would  soon  wear  out.  The  brain 
and  nerves  and  muscles,  etc.,  are  all  repaired  during  sleep,  so 
that  they  may  be  ready  for  use  again. 

When  you  feel  tired,  it  is  because  your  mind  lias  worn  the 
machinery  of  the  body  by  using  it.  Now,  when  you  lie  down 
and  sleep,  the  muscles  stop  working;  no  messages  pass  through 
the  nerves,  and  the  brain  is  at  rest,  because  the  mind  pretty  much 
stops  thinking.  But  all  this  time  that  you  sleep  the  blood  keeps 
circulating,  and  the  breathing  goes  on.  What  is  this  for?  It  is 
that  the  repairing  of  the  machinery  may  be  done,  so  as  to  get 
the  brain  and  nerves  and  muscles  ready  for  the  work  and  the 
play  of  to-morrow.  The  repairing,  you  know,  is  all  done  with 
the  blood.  This  is  the  material  for  repairing  as  well  as  for 
building,  and  therefore  it  must  be  circulating  everywhere  while 
you  are  asleep,  and  the  breathing  must  go  on  to  keep  the  blood 
in  good  order. 

The  repairing  of  the  body  is  going  on  all  the  time  while  you 
are  awake  as  well  as  when  you  are  asleep.  But  it  goes  on  more 
briskly  when  the  machinery  is  not  in  use  than  when  it  is.  So 
we  may  say  that  when  you  are  asleep  the  machinery  is  lying  by 
for  a  full  repair. 


WHAT   SLEEP    IS    FOE.  183 


The  night  the  time  for  sleep.  Why  merely  keeping  still  will  not  answer. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  building  of  the  body.  More  of  it  is 
done  when  you  are  asleep  than  when  you  are  awake.  You  are 
growing  all  the  time,  but  you  grow  most  when  you  are  asleep. 
And  it  is  because  the  child  is  growing  that  he  needs  more  sleep 
than  the  adult  does.  The  baby  is  growing  very  fast,  and  so  he 
sleeps  a  great  deal  of  his  time  in  the  day  as  well  as  in  the  night. 

The  night  is  given  to  us  as  the  time  to  sleep.  Then  it  is  dark 
and  still,  and  wTe  can  go  to  sleep  easily.  Most  animals  sleep 
through  the  night.  You  remember  that  I  told  you,  in  Chapter 
X.,  Part  First,  how  still  the  garden  becomes  as  evening  comes 
on.  The  flies  and  bees  and  bugs  and  birds  have  gone  to  rest, 
to  get  repaired  for  the  next  day ;  so,  too,  have  the  larger  animals. 
But  it  is  curious  that  some  animals  are  busy  in  the  night,  and 
take  their  sleep  in  the  day.  It  is  so  with  the  owl  and  the  bat. 
The  katydid,  you  know,  does  not  begin  its  noise  till  evening.  I 
suppose  that  it  sleeps  in  the  daytime. 

Those  people  that  stay  up  late  at  night,  and  do  not  get  up 
early  in  the  morning,  make  a  great  mistake.  They  do  not  take  the 
right  time  for  sleeping.  They  ought  not  to  turn  night  into  day, 
as  bats,  and  owls,  and  katydids  do,  for  they  are  not  made  for  it. 

When  you  are  tired  and  need  sleep  the  trouble  is  not  merely 
in  the  muscles.  If  it  were,  then  keeping  still  merely,  without 
sleeping,  would  answer.  But  the  brain  and  nerves  need  repair- 
ing as  well  as  the  muscles.  But  as  long  as  you  are  seeing  and 
hearing  and  feeling  the  nerves  are  kept  too  busy  to  be  repaired 
well ;  and  as  long  as  your  mind  keeps  thinking  the  brain  does 
not  get  thoroughly  repaired.     So,  then,  merely  keeping  still  will 


184  WHAT    SLEEP    IS   FOE. 


Dreaming.  The  winter  sleep  of  some  animals.  The  long  sleep  of  frogs. 

only  repair  the  muscles ;  and  sleep  is  needed  to  repair  the  brain 
and  the  nerves. 

Yon  know  that  when  yon  dream  very  much  yon  are  not  as 
much  refreshed  as  when  yon  sleep  soundly.  What  is  the  reason  ? 
It  is  because  that  when  you  dream  the  mind  is  not  wholly  at 
rest,  and  works  the  brain,  so  that  it  is  not  thoroughly  repaired. 

There  is  another  kind  of  sleep  into  which  some  animals  go. 
It  is  a  very  long  sleep.  It  lasts  all  winter.  Great  numbers  of 
such  animals  as  frogs,  bats,  flies,  and  spiders,  go  into  by-places  in 
the  fall  to  sleep  till  spring  comes.     Many  of  the  birds  do  this. 

It  is  a  deeper  sleep  than  that  which  animals  go  into  at  night. 
It  is  a  different  kind  of  sleep.  In  the  sleep  at  night  the  blood 
keeps  moving,  and  the  animal  breathes;  but  in  this  winter  sleep 
there  is  no  breathing,  and  the  blood  stops  circulating.  All  is  as 
still  as  death.  But  there  is  life  there,  just  as  I  told  you,  in  Part 
First,  there  is  life  in  the  seed,  and  in  the  trees  that  look  so  dead 
in  winter.  It  is  life  asleep.  The  warmth  of  spring  wakes  up 
again  the  life  in  these  animals,  as  it  does  the  life  in  the  trees. 
The  blood  then  begins  to  circulate  in  them,  as  the  sap  does  in 
the  trees,  and  they  come  out  from  their  hiding-places. 

I  have  said  that  this  sleep  which  some  animals  go  into  lasts 
through  the  winter.  It  may  be  made  to  last  longer  than  this. 
Some  frogs  were  once  kept  in  this  winter  sleep  for  over  three 
years  in  an  ice-house ;  and  then,  on  being  brought  out  into  the 
warm  air,  revived  and  hopped  about  as  lively  as  ever.  We  do 
not  know  how  much  longer  they  might  have  been  kept  in  this 
sleep.     You  remember  that  in  Part  First,  Chapter  XVI.,  I  told 


WHAT   SLEEP   IS   FOE.  185 


The  long  sleep  of  a  toad.  The  winter  sleep  of  some  animals  not  perfectly  sound. 

you  about  some  seeds  in  which  the  life  was  asleep  many  hundred 
years.  And  it  may  be  that  the  life  might  be  kept  asleep  in  frogs 
and  other  animals  as  long  as  this  by  steady  cold.  A  toad  was 
found  lately  in  the  middle  of  a  tree  fast  asleep.  How  he  came 
there  was  not  known,  but  the  wood  had  kept  growing  year  after 
year,  and  as  there  were  sixty-seven  rings  outside  of  the  toad,  it 
was  clear  that  he  had  been  there  sixty-seven  years.  A  long  sleep 
it  was,  but  he  soon  woke  up  and  hopped  about  like  other  toads. 

There  are  some  kinds  of  animals  that  crawl  into  winter-quar- 
ters in  whom  life  is  not  wholly  asleep.  The  blood  moves  a  little, 
and  they  once  in  a  while  take  a  breath ;  and,  besides,  they  now 
and  then,  when  the  weather  is  quite  warm,  wake  up  enough  to 
eat  a  little.  Now  it  is  curious  that  such  animals  always  lay  up 
something  to  eat  right  alongside  of  them  when  they  go  into 
their  winter  sleeping-places.  But  those  that  do  not  wake  up  at 
all  do  not  lay  up  any  food,  for  it  would  not  be  used  if  they  did 
lay  it  up.     They  are  governed  by  instinct  in  this  matter. 

The  field-mouse  lays  up  at  its  side  nuts  and  grain  when  it 
goes  into  its  winter-quarters,  and  when  it  is  partly  waked  up  by 
a  warm  day  eats  a  little  of  its  store.  The  bat  does  not  lay  up 
anything,  although  he  wakes  up  when  it  is  warm.  He  does 
not  need  to  lay  up  anything,  because  the  warmth  that  wakes  him 
up  wakes  up  also  gnats  and  insects  on  which  he  lives.  He 
catches  some  of  these,  and  then,  as  he  finds  himself  going  to 
sleep  again,  he  hangs  himself  up  by  his  hooks  as  before.  The 
marmot  or  woodchuck  does  not  wake  up  at  all,  but  he  always 
lays  up  some  dried  grass,  in  his  hole.     What  is  this  for?     He 


186  WHAT    SLEEP   IS    FOE. 


How  much  life  is  asleep  in  the  winter.  Flight  of  birds  south  in  winter. 

feeds  on  it  when  he  first  wakes  up  in  the  spring,  to  get  a  little 
strength  before  he  comes  out  from  his  hole. 

How  much  life,  then,  is  asleep  in  the  winter,  in  animals  as 
well  as  in  plants !  And  how  busy  is  life  in  its  waking  in  the 
spring!  While  the  roots  and  seeds  in  the  ground  send  up  their 
shoots,  and  the  sap  again  circulates  in  the  trees  and  shrubs,  and 
the  buds  swell,  multitudes  of  animals  are  crawling  out  of  their 
winter  hiding-places  into  the  warm,  balmy  air.  And  when  the 
leaves  are  fully  out,  and  the  flowers  abound,  the  earth  swarms 
with  the  busy  insects  and  birds  and  creeping  things,  of  which 
we  saw  none  during  the  winter. 

Some  of  the  birds  that  we  see  in  the  spring  have  not  been 
asleep  during  the  cold  weather,  but  have  spent  their  winter  at 
the  South,  and  have  now  winged  their  way  back  to  spend  their 
summer  with  us.  They  go  back  and  forth  in  this  way  every 
year,  guided  by  that  wonderful  and  mysterious  thing,  instinct. 
How  this  makes  them  take  their  flight  at  the  right  time,  and  in 
the  right  direction,  we  do  not  understand. 

Questions. — Why  do  animals  need  sleep?  Why  do  you  feel  tired  after  work,  or 
play,  or  study?  Why  does  the  blood  circulate  and  the  breathing  go  on  in  sleep? 
When  is  most  of  the  repairing  of  the  body  done  ?  How  is  it  with  its  growth  ?  What 
is  said  about  night  as  the  time  for  sleep  ?  Mention  some  animals  that  sleep  in  the 
day  and  are  awake  in  the  night  ?  What  is  said  about  people  that  turn  night  into 
day?  Why  would  not  merely  keeping  the  body  still,  without  sleeping,  answer  for 
our  rest?  What  is  said  about  dreaming?  What  is  said  of  the  winter  sleep  of  some 
animals  ?  Tell  about  the  frogs  and  the  toad.  Why  do  some  animals  take  food  into 
their  winter  sleeping-places?  Tell  about  the  field-mouse,  the  bat,  and  the  marmot. 
What  is  said  about  the  waking-up  of  life  in  the  spring  in  animals  and  in  plants? 
What  is  said  about  the  birds  ? 


HYGIENE.  1ST 


Care  of  our  bodies.  The  pores  of  the  skin. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

HYGIENE. 

In  some  of  the  chapters  you  have  learned  how  our  bodies  are 
made,  and  how  they  are  kept  alive;  you  have  seen  how  much 
like  machinery  the  different  parts  of  the  body  are.  To  take 
good  care  of  these  different  parts  of  our  body  is  what  we  are 
expected  to  do ;  it  is  reasonable  for  us  to  do  so,  because  we 
suffer  if  we  do  not.  But  it  is  wicked,  also,  if  we  neglect  such 
duties,  for  the  good  Father  has  given  us  life  and  the  faculties 
for  its  preservation  to  good  old  age.  The  knowledge  and  care 
that  we  use  in  such  duties  is  called  hygiene. 

We  do  wrong  if  we  do  not  carefully  preserve  our  natural  good 
health  by  the  use  of  faculties  we  have.  One  of  the  first  and  the 
simplest  rules  of  health,  or  hygiene,  we  should  heed  is,  be  cleanly. 
No  respectable  person  will  long  be  otherwise. 

In  your  studies  in  physiology  you  find  that  the  skin  is  full 
of  pores  that  reach  down  to  glands  or  little  sacs.  These  give 
out  a  fluid  from  the  blood  we  call  perspiration.  If  one  is  not 
cleanly,  by  frequent  washing,  the  little  pores  become  filled  up, 
the  moisture  hardens,  and  the  free  circulation  is  stopped ;  and 
this  is  liable  to  be  injurious  to  health. 

Hygiene,  then,  teaches  us  to  get  a  knowledge  of  all  we  can  of 
the  machinery  of  our  bodies,  and  honestly  to  use  it  always  when 
necessary  for  the  preservation  of  our  health.     A  very  necessary 


188  HYGIENE. 


Keep  the  feet  warm.  Intoxicating  drinks. 

tiling  to  do  is  to  prevent  a  sudden  check  of  perspiration,  as  many 
very  dangerous  diseases  come  right  from  such  carelessness. 
The  feet  should  always  be  kept  warm,  and  the  shoes  and  stock- 
ings wrell  and  quickly  dried,  when  wet.  Sitting  in  a  draft  of 
air,  in  coaches,  cars,  and  many  other  places,  often  causes  serious 
diseases.  We  should  dress  warmly,  but  so  as  to  preserve  a  uni- 
form, comfortable  condition,  in  doors  or  out.  We  should  avoid 
being  chilled,  and,  if  so  exposed,  should  get  warm  as  soon  as 
possible ;  especially  care  should  be  taken  to  heat  the  feet  well 
after  such  exposure. 

Hygiene  teaches  us  to  preserve  health  by  eating  and  drinking 
what  is  known  to  be  wholesome  for  us.  Our  parents  are  good 
teachers  in  such  things ;  they  usually  give  what  is  for  the  best, 
and  advise  against  what  is  wrong  and  hurtful.  Therefore  it  is 
wise  and  best  for  the  young  to  observe,  carefully  and  strictly, 
the  advice  of  their  parents. 

It  would  seem  that  when  you  are  old  enough  to  notice  the 
disgusting  looks  of  a  drunkard,  and  see  the  dreadful  sufferings 
he  brings  on  his  family,  his  wife,  and  his  children — their  loss  of 
home,  and  sufferings  from  starvation — all  this,  one  would  think, 
should  caution  us  against  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks  for  pleas- 
ure. Horrible  beyond  measure  is  the  result  to  the  drinker,  if  he 
continues.  It  is  dangerous  to  meddle  with  it  for  a  moment,  and 
it  is  much  the  best  to  have  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  it,  except- 
ing through  a  prescription  of  a  doctor. 

Many  people  find  that  it  makes  them  want  more,  the  more 
they  drink,  and,  like  all  that  is  evil,  it  carries  them  onward  to  a 


HYGIENE.  1 89 


Bad  results.  Narcotics. 

bad  end.  One  very  bad  result  is,  to  those  who  become  regular 
drinkers,  the  loss  of  moral  faculty.  Such  persons  are  not  so 
truthful,  and  there  is  little  to  hold  them  from  doing  much  that 
is  evil.  Such  are  easily  led  astray.  This  is  a  sad  thing  to  re- 
flect on,  but  it  is  too  true.  Then,  let  our  young  folks  shun  such 
evil  things. 

There  are  some  curious  facts  that  show  that  alcoholic  drinks 
are  not  even  so  valuable  for  a  medicine  as  was  once  thought. 
Those  who  brave  the  intense  cold  of  the  arctic  regions  find  that 
the  use  of  much  alcoholic  liquor  is  no  help  to  them,  and  sur- 
vive, when  those  who  depend  on  daily  drinks  suffer,  and  die 
even.  Men  who  have  all  their  faculties  in  a  natural  condition 
find  that  they  bear  the  heat  and  cold  of  the  tropic  and  arctic 
regions  much  better  and  more  safely  than  those  who  depend 
upon  spirits  to  help  them.  The  latter,  in  cases  of  great  emer- 
gency, are  known  to  lose  courage  quickly.  Men  undergoing 
training  for  violent  exercises  do  not  use  alcoholic  liquors  at 
such  times,  even  if  they  do  at  others,  knowing  that  alcohol 
really  weakens  the  muscles,  the  stimulus  of  a  drink  soon  pass- 
ing off,  and  leaving  a  corresponding  want  behind.  People  who 
habitually  use  liquors  are  not  so  likely  to  survive  serious  ill- 
ness. Our  young  folks  will,  then,  abstain  from  such  unreason- 
able courses,  and  lead  healthy  and  godly  lives. 

There  are  many  other  articles  besides  spirits,  called  narcotics, 
which  are  such  deadly  poisons,  one  would  think  it  unnecessary 
to  caution  people  against  their  use.  Leave  them  all  to  your 
doctor,  and  do  not  dare  to  use  any  without  his  advice,  for  they 


190  HYGIENE. 


Effects  of  narcotics.  Tobacco. 

are  dangerous.  They  soon  beget  an  appetite,  as  rum  does, 
which  brings  ruin  in  every  form.  The  stomach  is  disturbed, 
and  many  ailments  are  produced  that  you  would  shudder  to 
know  about. 

Tobacco  is  another  very  useless  article  we  should  shun.  Smok- 
ing and  chewing  tobacco  are  idle  habits  at  best,  and  cannot  but 
be  bad  in  some  way.  One  would  suppose  that  the  nauseating 
effects  of  a  trial  at  smoking  or  chewing  would  preveut  our  boys 
from  further  trials ;  but  it  seems  manly,  they  think.  Oh,  no, 
it  is  not  manly;  leave  them  alone.  There  are  many  reasons 
why  smoking  and  chewing  are  very  undesirable,  besides  being 
an  injury  to  health.  Our  comfortable  homes  are  polluted  by 
the  stale  tobacco  smoke ;  the  floors  are  sometimes  not  free  from 
the  vile  juices.  No  household  can  be  sweet  and  clean  where  to- 
bacco is  used  to  any  considerable  extent. 

People  whose  lives  are  spent  mostly  within  doors  suffer  the 
most  from  excessive  smoking.  Of  the  many  evil  effects  that  hap- 
pen to  them,  the  worst  is  a  general  paralysis,  first  felt  in  vertigo, 
confusion  of  the  mind,  and  tingling  of  the  finger  nerves.  These 
symptoms  should  prompt  a  complete  abandonment  of  tobacco. 

Cigarettes  are  known  to  be  very  injurious ;  perhaps  the  pa- 
per is  most  irritating.  Smoking  tobacco  induces  a  depression 
of  spirits  that  calls  for  stimulants.  In  that  respect  it  is  doubly 
dangerous. 

Questions. — What  is  hygiene?  Why  should  we  first  of  all  take  good  care  of  our 
body?  What  is  the  simplest  rule  of  hygiene?  Describe  the  pores  of  the  skin? 
What  fluid  is  given  out  from  them  ?     From  what  does  the  perspiration  come  ?     What 


HYGIENE.  191 

Questions. 


happens  if  the  pores  of  the  skin  become  stopped  ?  What  does  hygiene  teach  ?  What 
is  another  very  important  thing  to  do  ?  What  about  the  feet  ?  Why  should  we 
avoid  being  in  a  draft  of  air?  How  should  we  dress?  What  should  we  do  after  ex- 
posure to  wet?  What  further  does  hygiene  teach?  Who  are  the  good  teachers 
in  such  things  ?  Why  should  we  let  spirituous  liquors  entirely  alone  ?  What  hap- 
pens to  many  who  drink  habitually?  What  is  one  very  bad  result  mentioned? 
What  happens  in  such  cases  ?  What  do  some  curious  facts  show  ?  What  about 
men  who  have  all  faculties  in  a  natural  condition  in  the  tropics  and  arctic  zones? 
How  do  men  that  train  for  violent  exercise  do  ?  What  effect  does  alcoholic  liquors 
have  on  the  muscles  ?  What  else  happens  to  people  that  habitually  drink  much  al- 
coholic liquor  ?  What  about  other  stimulants,  narcotics,  etc.  ?  What  is  best  to  do 
with  them?  What  effects  are  seen  from  the  use  of  narcotics?  What  about  to- 
bacco? What  would  one  suppose  concerning  the  use  of  tobacco?  What  do  boys 
think  of  the  habit  of  smoking  ?  What  do  you  think  of  it  ?  Why  are  the  habits  of 
smoking  and  chewing  very  undesirable  as  well  as  hurtful  ?  What  is  sometimes  the 
effect  of  the  use  of  tobacco  on  the  brain?  What  should  be  done  in  such  a  case? 
Why  are  cigarettes  more  hurtful  ? 


192  WHAT   TO    DO    IN    AN    EMERGENCY 


How  to  help  those  apparently  drowned. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

WHAT   TO    DO    IN   AN    EMERGENCY. 

There  are  many  things  we  may  do  for  the  relief  of  people 
who  are  in  danger.  If  you  observe  the  simple  rules  for  the 
recovery  of  persons  rescued  from  drowning,  you  do  what  a 
doctor  cannot  do,  unless  he  comes  in  time.  One  may  have 
been  under  water  some  minutes — from  fifteen  to  thirty — and 
all  appearance  of  life  gone.  Such  a  person  may  not  live  if  let 
alone;  but  you  are,  happily,  at  hand,  and  immediately  turn  his 
face  downward,  and  heels  and  lower  body  upward,  to  let  out 
the  water  from  his  mouth.  You  quickly,  but  gently,  press 
once  against  his  ribs  with  a  hand  on  each  side  of  his  chest ; 
then  you  blow  forcibly  into  his  mouth,  with  his  nostrils  closed, 
and  again  you  press  his  chest,  and  again  blow  into  his  mouth 
to  inflate  his  lungs.  You  do  all  this  to  make  him  breathe.  If 
you  have  anything  at  hand  that  will  irritate  his  nose,  it  is  val- 
uable— snuff,  or  even  tickling  the  nose  with  a  straw,  is  good ; 
and  the  result  is,  sometimes,  that  the  person  will  be  convulsed 
in  those  parts,  and  sneeze — a  most  happy  occurrence,  for  then 
the  lungs  are  brought  into  action.  Heat,  by  any  means,  is  val- 
uable now — warm  clothes,  etc. ;  but  this  is  of  little  value  before 
the  all-necessary  action  of  the  lungs. 

A  most  memorable  instance  of  resuscitation  occurred  to  us  in 
the  case  of  a  fisherman  who  was  taken  ashore  after  being,  at 


WHAT   TO    DO    IN   AN   EMERGENCY.  193 

Learn  to  swim.  What  to  do  for  fainting. 

least,  thirty  minutes  under  water.  All  means  seemed  to  fail, 
even  shocks  from  a  galvanic  battery.  A  bottle  of  tincture  of 
cayenne  pepper  was  at  hand,  and  a  few  drops  of  that  turned 
into  the  nose  produced  instant  sneezing,  which  inflated  the 
lungs  sufficiently  to  continue  the  functions  of  life. 

This  is  recorded  as  an  instance  of  what  may  be  done,  even  at 
the  last  extremity.  A  prompt  application  of  a  few  simple  rem- 
edies will  often  save  life,  when,  if  you  wait  for  a  doctor,  all  is  lost. 

Boys  and  girls  should  learn  to  swim  ;  there  ought  to  be  no 
exception  to  this.  One  increases  his  chances  for  life  many 
times  by  being  able  to  swim.  Any  one  may  learn  by  taking 
into  the  water  with  him  a  board  to  rest  upon ;  but  a  flat  rub- 
ber bag  is  best.  Salt  water,  of  considerable  depth,  is  the  best 
for  learners. 

Fainting  is  often  treated  wrongly.  Most  persons  know  what 
fainting  is,  and  it  is  desirable  that  all  should  know.  When  a  per- 
son faints,  the  simplest  remedy  is  to  lay  him  down  horizontally  ; 
water,  or  rubbing,  or  anything  else,  even  ammonia,  is  of  little  ac- 
count compared  to  the  effect  of  lowering  the  head. 

Fainting  is  simply  a  temporary  loss  of  the  usual  volume  of 
blood  in  the  head  —  a  slight  and  usually  harmless  occurrence 
that  requires  first  the  reclined  position,  and  then  fresh  air.  But 
persons  in  a  faint  should  not  be  kept  upright,  even  if  they  have 
no  fresh  air  or  other  restoratives. 

All  is  of  little  importance  beyond  the  relief  of  the  brain  by  a 
recumbent  posture.  Therefore,  in  case  of  fainting  in  a  close 
room,  as  is  often  the  case,  as  in  a  theatre  or  lecture-room,  the 

22 


194  WHAT   TO   DO   IN    AN    EMERGENCY. 

Learn  physiology.  How  to  stop  bleeding. 

person  should  be  laid  upon  the  seat,  or  floor,  even,  rather  than 
be  carried  out  at  the  risk  of  the  head  remaining  upright. 

It  should  be  the  duty  of  young  folks  to  learn  physiology 
and  the  nature  of  some  few  simple  and  common  ailments,  that 
they  may  readily  lend  aid  in  emergencies.  They  should  cer- 
tainly learn  to  distinguish  the  difference  between  fainting  and 
"fits,"  as  they  are  called.  The  latter  are  known  at  once  by  the 
twitching  of  the  face  and  body,  and  the  frothing  at  the  mouth. 
Persons  thus  affected  should  be  placed  in  a  nearly  upright  posi- 
tion, as  it  often  happens  the  illness  is  apoplectic,  a  "rush  of  blood 
to  the  head,"  so  to  speak,  and  requires  just  the  opposite  treat- 
ment to  that  used  in  fainting.  Cold  water,  in  either  case,  applied 
to  the  head  freely,  is  very  useful  as  a  remedy. 

These  are  among  the  more  important  emergencies  in  which 
all,  as  intelligent  citizens  and  Christians,  should  be  ready  to 
give  aid.  No  young  person  should  allow  himself  to  be  in  the 
least  ignorant  of  them.  Let  it,  then,  be  a  duty  to  know  all  about 
the  subject,  and  be  prepared  to  help  yourself  or  any  one  you 
may  meet  in  distress. 

There  are  some  other  things  you  will  learn  from  a  studv  of 
anatomy  and  physiology.  You  should  know  what  to  do  if  you 
cut  your  own  or  another's  limbs  or  body.  If  an  artery  is  cut 
you  should  be  ready  with  your  knowledge  that  the  blood  is  com- 
ing from  the  heart,  in  all  directions,  towards  the  extremities — 
to  the  fingers,  to  the  toes,  to  the  head.  Therefore  you  will,  if 
an  artery  is  cut  in  your  head  or  neck,  press  on  the  part  that 
is  between  the  cut  and  the  heart.     You  will  also,  if  the  hand 


WHAT   TO    DO   IN    AN    EMERGENCY.  195 

How  life  may  be  saved  by  a  little  knowledge. 

or  arm  is  cut  in  the  course  of  an  artery,  tie  a  bandage  on  above 
the  cut,  or  press  your  finger  on  the  great  vein  above  where  it  is 
bleeding.  So  with  the  feet  and  legs ;  the  great  artery  that  you 
may  feel  right  under  the  knee,  or  up  in  the  inside  of  the  thigh, 
must  be  pressed  upon  tightly  if  the  cut  is  below ;  and  this  is  to 
be  done  until  you  are  relieved  by  a  doctor.  Many  a  person  has 
had  his  life  saved  by  some  bright  one  that  had  learned  how  to 
do  these  simple  things.     How  much  a  duty  it  is,  then,  to  learn ! 

Questions. — What  would  you  do  if  a  person  had  been  to  all  appearances  drowned  ? 
Why  do  you  blow  into  his  mouth  and  press  on  his  chest  alternately  ?  What  about 
irritating  his  nose?  What  is  all-important  to  be  done  first?  What  about  heat? 
How  long  a  time  is  it  stated  a  man  remained  under  water,  and  yet  was  restored? 
By  what  was  he  restored  ?  What  effect  did  the  tincture  have  on  the  body  ?  Why  is 
this  example  mentioned?  Why  should  you  not  wait  for  a  doctor?  Why  should 
boys  and  girls  learn  to  swim  ?  How  may  one  learn  to  swim  ?  What  water  is  most 
favorable?  What  is  fainting?  Is  it  comparatively  harmless?  What  position  is 
necessary  to  restore  a  person  in  a  faint  ?  Which  is  most  important,  the  horizontal 
position  or  fresh  air  ?  What  would  you  do  in  a  close  room  when  one  faints  ?  What 
is  the  real  duty  of  young  folks  in  this  particular  ?  What  is  important  to  distin- 
guish? What  difference  is  there?  What  would  you  do  if  you  saw  one  in  a  fit? 
Why  is  it  more  proper  to  raise  the  head  of  one  in  a  fit?  What  handy  thing  is 
useful  in  any  case?  Why  is  it  our  duty  to  know  how  to  give  aid  in  emergencies 
of  this  kind?  What  about  anatomy  and  physiology?  What  would  you  do,  if  an 
artery  were  cut  on  the  head  or  neck,  to  check  the  flow  of  blood  ?  What  if  the  hand 
or  forearm  is  cut  ?  What  if  the  foot  or  leg  ?  Why  would  you  press  on  the  artery,  if 
you  can  find  it,  or  the  part  near  it,  in  such  cases  ?  Is  it  not  our  duty  to  know  how 
to  do  these  things  ? 

THE     END. 


